ERIE, Colo. — Water conservation is a concern across Colorado. In the town of Erie, the residents seem to share that concern.
Erie officials announced this week that they had saved 54 million gallons of water from April to June, representing a 10% reduction from their five-year average.
Town of Erie Water Resource Manager Tamara Moon says they had already been reminding people to conserve water for a while but hadn't officially enacted voluntary drought restrictions until early May. Under these voluntary restrictions, residents are asked to limit lawn-watering to just twice a week, similar to voluntary restrictions in nearby Boulder and Louisville.
▶️ Denver7's Alex Dowd talks with Erie neighbors about how they're saving water
"Most of my neighbors seem pretty involved with it," Erie resident Kelly Fauna said. "A lot of them aren't watering their lawns. Some of them are, but it definitely seems like something I've heard people talking about."
Jason Shimmel has lived in Erie for just under a decade. He says when he moved to the town, he ripped up his lawn to plant food and flowers for his wife's florist business.
"We use less water than bluegrass does per square foot, but still more than a true low-water native garden," he said. "Most of it is giving us something back, so we look at ourselves as farmers, like urban farmers, on our tiny little quarter-acre plot here."
In the front lawn, he says there are mostly native plants, which he waters about an inch every two weeks. The side lawn — one of the only grass patches on the property — gets watered about every 10 days.
However, Shimmel says while he's more aware of his water usage, it isn't necessarily down this year. In fact, he says some areas are up due to the harsh heat's effects on his plants.
He has noticed he isn't the only one, and sees those watering turf lawns as a larger issue to conservation.
"It gives us flowers that [we] use for business," he said. "It gives us a ton of food. We still have a pantry stocked of stuff that we grew last year. We do canning and pickling and all that kind of stuff. So I've looked at it through a different lens because I see it as more farming and actually feeding us as opposed to ornamental."
He's also noticed some Erie neighbors opting to switch their turf for more native lawns.
While not everyone is fully following the recommended restrictions, the average person in Erie saved 1,285 gallons of water over those three months.
For comparison, residents in Northglenn — which is under mandatory Stage 2 drought restrictions that look nearly identical to Erie's voluntary ones — use about 100 gallons of water each day.
Northglenn's restrictions have reduced the town's water usage about 3% since Stage 2 restrictions were enacted in April.
Denver7 reached out to other Colorado municipalities with similar populations and will update this article when they respond.
Fauna says Erie residents are saving since they see the risks that come with drawn-out droughts.
"We're maybe close enough to Louisville — like those fires that happened, I think impacted a lot of people that we know," she said. "It just feels like a serious issue to most people.”
This weekend, Shimmel says he's building a shade structure over his garden to cut down on water use in the heavy-water areas of the backyard.
Moon says the town is participating too. Under these restrictions, Erie Parks and Recreation reduced its use by 20% in properties with irrigation.
Town officials plan to keep the voluntary restrictions in place through October.
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