Denver Water, created by Denver’s voters in 1918, has been around for 105 years. 

Joseph Esposito has worked at Denver Water for nearly half that time span, witnessing Denver’s growth and gaining trusted friends and co-workers along the way. 

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Esposito's story celebrates more than Denver Water's mission; it represents a tapestry woven with shared aspirations, community bonds and the personal enrichment derived from shared hobbies.

Esposito was 22 when he was hired on as a utility technician 50 years ago, joining the close-knit crews that install and maintain the system of water delivery pipelines buried under city streets.

In recent years he has worked in the utility’s locates department, the group responsible for finding and marking the location of underground water lines in advance of construction work.

His dedication and work profoundly impacts the safety of both life and property within Denver Water’s service area. 

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"We really pride ourselves on keeping people and property safe,” he said. “This job is very important in maintaining the integrity of Denver's water infrastructure and the public’s trust in us.” 

Esposito was drawn to Denver Water because it offered stability and a career. 

“People will always need water, and I saw it as a chance to work all over the city, meet interesting people, and feel like I’m part of Denver's growth,” he said.

And over the last 50 years, Esposito has been a part of big projects that changed the face of Denver itself. 

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Find more than a job at denverwater.org/Careers.

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He remembers one particularly challenging project that involved installing more than 4,000 feet of pipeline near the bustling intersection of South Broadway and East Mineral Avenue in Littleton, an intersection that hosts two major grocery stores and the AdventHealth Littleton hospital (formerly called Littleton Adventist Hospital). 

“But back then, nothing existed except for the Michelin tire shop,” Esposito recalled with a laugh. 

Installing three-fourths of a mile of pipe was challenging enough for the crews, but then the project got complicated. Really complicated. 

“The project was already well underway when we ran into blue shale. It’s harder than concrete and we hit huge veins of it,” Esposito recalled.

Blue shale takes its name from its sky-like coloring. Finding it can be a devastating discovery for an underground construction project. 

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Normally, teams would use dynamite to break down rock that was difficult to fracture, but in this case, there wasn’t enough access to do the job safely. So, the team turned to machinery to get the job done. 

“Drilling through the rock with machinery was slow going. Little by little we made progress, but it took months,” Esposito said.

As the seasons changed, winter brought cold winds that sometimes drove temperatures down to 20 below zero. 

The crews persevered through the cold, until project leads decided to pause the work and wait for warmer temperatures to return in the spring. 

“The foreman made the call to prioritize us, and though I wanted the project complete, I’m glad they were looking out for my safety. Our safety has always been a top priority at Denver Water,” Esposito said.

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Four generations of this family built a legacy at Denver Water.

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Trust, safety and a unique work environment facilitated knowledge-sharing relationships between Esposito and his colleagues that allowed them all to thrive. 

“I’ve met and worked with some truly incredible people at Denver Water,” Esposito recalled. 

“Parker Young for instance, who worked in construction and maintenance and retired from Denver Water in 2007, is one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. You really want a guy like that on your team, on your side," he said.

“Our common experiences and interests bound us in a strong way. I’m really thankful for that because the better your relationships are, the better your life is going to be.”

One of those relationships predates Esposito’s Denver Water career. 

"My good friend Jerry Ambrosio and I came to work at Denver Water together. We had been friends since the age of 19!”

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The two young men quickly bonded with co-workers over their shared love of automobiles — and need for speed. 

“Jerry and I always dreamed of building a racecar, and during our early days at Denver Water, we really made a solid go of it,” Esposito said. 

The pair pooled all the money they could spare and poured it into building their car, working days at Denver Water and then dashing home to pursue their passion project. 

“I have to admit, some days I was pretty tired when I came into work because I spent so much time tinkering on that car!” Esposito said.

The project brought the young men closer to friends and colleagues who remain in their lives to this day.

“Robert Blair was a transmission and distribution mechanic at Denver Water until he retired in 2012. He is really important to me. He lives in Arizona now, but we keep in touch weekly at least,” Esposito said. 

“Not only was he a great guy to have on the team, he also really knew cars. It seemed like he could get anything — from water infrastructure to an old engine — working again just by touching it.” 

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The group’s goal? Racing their car at “The Palace,” the storied Lakeside Speedway at West 44th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard, which was considered “the finest racetrack between Kansas City and Los Angeles” until it closed in 1988 following a tragic accident. 

"We never really got the car to the point that it could race, but we had such a fun time building and tinkering,” Esposito recalled. 

While the young men honed their skills in the garage, they were also learning goal-setting and perseverance that would carry them through successful careers. 

During his time at Denver Water, Esposito has seen reservoirs drain and refill, dams raised, and treatment plants retrofitted for additional decades of work. But what he remembers most is how his work helped the people Denver Water serves. 

“A lot of the importance of our work isn’t so obvious on a day-to-day scale, but it’s more obvious now, looking back,” he said.

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“There is a certain amount of pride and satisfaction in this work," he said. "People are always so appreciative when we can fix things up for them.”

At the end of the day, Esposito views his successful career through the relationships he’s built, relationships he plans to continue into retirement, whenever that date falls. 

“I met Pier Palo Lecciso at Denver Water over 40 years ago. He was a labor foreman and retired in 2009. He was well-known across Denver Water for his arm-wrestling skills. The man was unbeatable!” 

When he finally does retire, Esposito plans to join Lecciso in Italy, where both men will put the skills they refined over decades into a more personal project, restoring Lecciso’s historic home in Italy. 

“I’ve seen so many big projects take shape over the last 50 years at Denver Water,” Esposito said. "I’m excited to work on something more personal.”