ERWSD is committed to water conservation and helping our customers reduce their water use. We work to achieve this through education and outreach, tiered water rate structures, water use regulations, and minimizing inefficiencies in the public water system. It is our goal to work with customers, partners, and the general public to reduce the community's overall water use by 400-acre feet by January 2026.
Water supply in the Colorado River Basin is diminishing. We want to help you succeed in using water differently.
One way to do this is to pay attention to your water use and bills. Monthly water and wastewater service will increase by 10.9% for a typical customer in 2024, primarily due to ongoing regulatory mandates, aging infrastructure, and improving system resiliency.
Use our new interactive bill forecasting tool to see how these changes will impact your bill. You can modify your water use to see how your bill would change.
How do I use less water?
Decrease your outdoor use. Did you know that only ~25% of water used for irrigation (outdoors) returns to a local river or stream? Whereas ~95% of water used indoors goes directly back to local waterways after being treated in one of our wastewater treatment facilities. While it's important to use less water indoors and out, the biggest opportunity to reduce water use is outdoors.
Here are ways you can reduce your water use:
- Water less. Most of your plants probably don't need as much as they are getting. Find out how much your landscaping actually needs and adjust your irrigation to provide that.
- Remove irrigated lawn. Lawn or turf grass is the most irrigated crop in our valley and in the US. Replacing lawn with native, drought tolerant landscaping will not only beautify your yard but it will provide pollinator habitat, create diversity, improve soil health, reduce your water use, and save you money in the long term.
- Irrigate efficiently. Find out how much your landscaping actually needs and dial back your irrigation to provide it. Have a conversation with your landscaper to ensure that your irrigation is not overwatering and wasting water. And then use a Smartmeter so you don't have to think about it.
- Pay attention to your water bill. Do you know what you pay for water every month? Create your free WaterSmart account to track, manage, and understand your water use and bill.
- Use our rebates. ERWSD provides rebates to help remove barriers and create incentives for customers to reduce their water use. Check out our Reduce Your Use Rebates page to learn how.
Our Water Use Regulations and rate structures are designed to make efficient use of water resources and to prevent waste and overuse. The regulations govern how water is used. The rate structure addresses both fixed and variable costs. The price for varying monthly water use increases as usage increases, higher cost for high use promotes water conservation.
The district actively seeks to prevent water loss in the public water system, whether due to theft, system inefficiencies, line breaks or otherwise. Proactive actions anchor the district's approach to water conservation, whether at the utility or customer level.
We must all do our part to conserve our vital water resources. Please do what you can to reduce your use.
For more information regarding available conservation resources, contact Customer Service at 970-476-7480.