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Listen As cities in Colorado are expanding to accomodate a growing population, so are the costs of providing services and utilities. As part of Connecting the Drops, Maeve Conran takes a look at how some communities are reevaluating how they charge for services like water and what that might mean for encouraging smarter growth. |
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| Listen to the Story | Transcript |
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Pair Sound with Sight
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| Aurora restructured its tap fees in 2014 to have water consumption more closely aligned with fees. |
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| This new development close to the Children's Hospital in Aurora is subject to the new tap fee structure which results in higher water users paying higher tap fees. |
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| Marshall Brown, director of Aurora Water says they hope the new tap fees will have developers think about what they're designing and its impact on water. "Instead of maybe just planting acres and acres of turf, they may now consider low water use plants and other types of more efficient water use landscaping," Brown says. |
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| Amelia Nuding, a water and energy analyst with Western Resource Advocates is studying how tap fees can be used to encourage growth with water conservation in mind. The report will be released later this summer. (Photo courtesy of Western Resource Advocates) |
Connecting the Drops Partners
Connecting the Drops is a radio collaboration between the Colorado Foundation for Water Education and Colorado Community Radio Stations KGNU, KDNK and KRCC.
Support for 2016 programming comes from CoBank
