AURORA, Colo. — A Facebook post from Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman sparked confusion this week after he claimed Range View High School was ignoring the city's Stage One water restrictions and would face a potential shutoff because the grounds around the facility were very green.
The post came after Coffman noticed the grass at Rangeview appeared unusually green. In it, he said city leaders met with Aurora Water on Monday to better understand the problem, and that the school district had been paying fines for failing to comply with drought restrictions.
However, APS clarified that the district was able to maintain the landscaping at its properties after paying drought surcharges — not fines — under a variance program for large irrigators.
“We take the ongoing drought very seriously and know that we, like all Aurora organizations and residents, must wisely use our limited water resources,” spokesperson Corey Christiansen told Denver7. “As Mayor Coffman mentioned in his post, we learned of a possible concern on Monday. To date, we have not received any fines issued by Aurora Water nor have we paid any fines.”
The water utility clarified the confusion on Wednesday. According to Shonnie Cline, deputy director for internal and external affairs, it stemmed from the conversation with city leaders on Monday.
"I think what possibly caught the mayor off guard a little bit is we did say that [APS] has paid a fair amount of money in drought surcharges," Cline said.
Cline said a surcharge is not the same thing as a fine or violation.
Aurora Water places large irrigators — such as golf courses and school districts — on a variance program that lets customers stagger watering days by zone, but no individual zone can be watered more than two days a week and never between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
These customers must meet certain efficiency targets.
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If they exceed those thresholds, they are subject to removal from the variance program and forced onto the standard two fixed watering days-a-week schedule.
Cline acknowledged how confusing these nuances can be.
“I think that I am going to give [Mayor Coffman] a lot of grace in this space, because I think that staff did not do a good job of explaining to him what is going on,” she said.
Meanwhile, Aurora residents are facing stricter constraints under Stage 1, including outdoor watering restrictions. The new rules also include surcharges for excessive usage.
Mayor Coffman was not available for an interview when Denver7 reached out for comment.
APS said it remains committed to working with Aurora Water on conservation efforts.
“We want to emphasize that one photo from one school site does not represent our district’s overall water usage. We are proud of our extremely dedicated maintenance team that works hard to keep our school grounds in the best shape possible for our community,” Christiansen said. “We look forward to continuing to work with Aurora Water as engaged environmental stewards.”
The utility plans to continue meeting with school district and city leaders as the situation moves forward.
“One of the things that we're going to do, and this is on staff, is to be able to provide [the mayor] some additional information that I think is so desperately needed, and that's in working alongside APS to be able to have them be able to provide us the information that we need,” Cline said. “Our conservation manager is working with their team as well today, and I know that we will be having a conversation again with them on Friday.”
Aurora's reservoir levels currently are at 52 percent.
