DENVER — Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024 — The Denver Board of Water Commissioners on Wednesday, Oct. 23, adopted rate changes to help pay for important upgrades, projects and ongoing maintenance and repair work to keep its system operating efficiently while keeping rates as low as good service will allow.

The new rates take effect Jan. 1, 2025, and for typical single-family residential customers who receive a bill from Denver Water, if they use the same amount of water in 2025 as they did in 2024, the new rates will increase their monthly bill by an average of about $2 to $3 over the course of the year, depending on if they live in Denver, or live in one of Denver Water’s suburban distributor districts.

“Our lives depend on water, and the mission of Denver Water is to ensure that our customers — 1.5 million people across Denver and surrounding suburbs — enjoy safe and reliable water service today and for the future. The system we have today is due to the foresight of Denver Water’s past leadership. In keeping with this legacy, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of this system and the water it provides, while keeping rates as low as good service will allow,” said Denver Water CEO/Manager Alan Salazar.   

Denver Water expects to invest $1.8 billion over the next 10 years in projects that will maintain, repair, protect and upgrade the system and make it more resilient and flexible in the future. The utility is committed to ensuring the system can reliably deliver safe, clean and affordable water to its customers while mitigating the effects of the economy, from inflation to supply chain issues, on its costs.

More details on the rate increase can be found at these links:

Water rates to rise slightly in 2025 — Provides details on Denver Water’s rate structure and how the increase impacts customer bills, including an infographic visually highlighting the impacts to customers inside and outside of Denver.

Investing in our water system — Highlights what water rates help pay for with an overview of some of the projects that make up the utility’s 10-year forecast for an estimated $1.8 billion investment into the system that supports about 25% of the state’s population, including Colorado’s capital city. The story includes a video highlighting some of the current projects, including the new Northwater Treatment Plant north of Golden completed earlier this year, the expansion of Gross Reservoir, the Lead Reduction Program  that is replacing customer-owned lead service lines at no direct cost to the customer, and our work to help create water-wise landscapes across our community.  The investment forecast also includes improving and replacing aging water mains under the streets and improving the overall flexibility and resiliency of the system and our communities.

Also, since January 2020, Denver Water has replaced more than 28,000 customer-owned lead service lines at no direct cost to the customers.

The utility in 2022 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with several water utilities across the West to reduce the use of water-intensive Kentucky bluegrass in places where it’s purely decorative, such as traffic medians.