I'm Leah Behr, a REALTOR® with the Behr & Behr Team in Colorado Springs, and water is the one utility question from out-of-state buyers that I actually like answering. The answer is better than people expect. This region came through the driest winter in the modern snowpack record and still did not add a drought surcharge to a single bill. Denver did. But if the house you are looking at sits outside city limits on a well, almost none of that applies to you. Both halves matter.
Why 2026 played out so differently here than up north
On March 19, 2026, the Colorado Springs Utilities Board entered Water Shortage Preparation, the mildest step in the city's Water Shortage Ordinance. It turns on operational tools and public education. It imposes no restrictions.
The reason it stopped there is storage. Across the utility's 25 reservoirs, systemwide storage sat at about 77% of capacity, roughly three years of customer demand, and mandatory restrictions require storage to fall below a year and a half of demand by April 1 (SoCo Digest, March 23, 2026; Colorado Sun, March 25, 2026). It was not close.
The winter was still terrible. Arkansas basin snowpack hit 49% of median in early March, the worst-off basin in the state (KOAA, citing NRCS SNOTEL data, March 4, 2026), and the utility later cut expected yield to 41% of average, the lowest on record (Colorado Springs Utilities, via U.S. Army Fort Carson, 2026).
Denver Water had the same winter and a thinner cushion. It declared Stage 1 drought on March 25, then approved drought pricing on April 8: $1.10 per 1,000 gallons in Tier 2, $2.20 in Tier 3, from May usage through April 30, 2027, essential indoor use exempt. Denver Water estimates about $7 more per year for a super conserver and about $76 for a high user (Denver Water, April 8, 2026). Those are annual figures, and I keep seeing them misquoted locally as monthly.
Colorado Springs Utilities | Denver Water | |
|---|---|---|
2026 drought status | Preparation stage, no restrictions | Stage 1 drought, mandatory restrictions |
Outdoor watering days | Up to three a week, you pick them | Two a week, assigned by address |
Sprinkler hours | Not 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., May 1 to Oct. 15 | Between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. |
Drought surcharge | None imposed in 2026 | $1.10 and $2.20 per 1,000 gallons by tier |
Reported storage | About 77% of capacity, March 2026 | 78% full July 13, 2026, vs 97% average |
Violation fine | Up to $100 | Not stated in the board release |
Where the water actually comes from
Colorado Springs averages about 16 inches of precipitation a year. The city outgrew that long ago. What replaced it is four mountain collection systems, Homestake, Twin Lakes, Blue River and the federal Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, gathering snowmelt near Aspen, Leadville and Breckenridge. The imported share depends on which utility document you read: the 2026 Drinking Water Quality Report puts roughly 75% in those mountain systems, nearly 200 miles away, while the utility's conservation workbook says 65% comes from the Colorado River Basin about 100 miles off. Either way, most of your water was never local.
Getting it here takes four tunnels, nearly 300 miles of raw water pipeline, five pump stations and 25 reservoirs before treatment (Colorado Springs Utilities conservation workbook). The Fryingpan-Arkansas piece, authorized by Congress in 1962, averages 69,200 acre-feet a year through a tunnel under the Continental Divide (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation). Water does not run downhill to this city. It gets pumped, which is most of the answer to why rates look the way they do.
The $825 million pipe that changed the math
The Southern Delivery System is why the three-year storage figure exists. It runs about 50 miles north from Pueblo Reservoir, mostly in 66-inch pipe, and three pump stations lift the water 1,500 feet along the way. First deliveries began April 28, 2016. It came in at $825 million against a budget of nearly $1 billion, roughly $160 million under, with Fountain, Security and Pueblo West as partners (Engineering News-Record and Water Online, 2016). A city fed by one long mountain pipeline is fragile. A city with a large second intake from the south is not.
Water is also why growth here gets fought over. In June 2025 the proposed Karman Line annexation, about 1,900 acres and 6,500 homes on the southeast edge, went to a public vote and lost 82% to 18%, with water among the stated objections (Colorado Public Radio, June 17, 2025).
What water costs, and what is already scheduled
Council approved a five-year rate case in November 2024 covering 2025 through 2029, reported at roughly 5.6% a year and about $85 a month in cumulative additional charges across all four services by 2029 (Colorado Public Radio, November 13, 2024). For 2026 it approved a base rate adjustment of about 6.5%, or $14.87 a month more for a typical four-service residential customer (KKTV, October 29, 2025). More increases are already scheduled.
Water-only figures are murkier, and good sources disagree. The Colorado Sun's 2024 comparison put a Colorado Springs winter bill at $50.95 a month for 4,040 gallons against $26.74 in Denver for 3,000 gallons. The aggregator utility-rates.com reads the utility's January 2026 residential sheet as $18.00 fixed plus $3.80 per 1,000 gallons, about $37 at 5,000 gallons. Those do not reconcile. Use the utility's own bill calculator, and ask any seller for twelve months of bills.
The watering rules, and which version is correct
Spring coverage muddled this badly, so here is the straight version. Colorado Springs does not have drought restrictions. It has Water-Wise Rules, which apply every year regardless of drought stage. All six, from the utility's own rule sheet:
- You may water up to three days a week. You choose the days.
- From May 1 to October 15, run sprinklers before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m.
- Do not let water pool on hard surfaces or run down gutters.
- Repair leaking sprinkler systems within 10 days.
- Use a shut-off nozzle when washing anything with a hose.
- Wash driveways, sidewalks and patios with water only for a public health or safety reason.
Days are not assigned by address here. That is a Denver rule. Drip irrigation, a handheld hose with a shut-off nozzle and a handheld container are allowed at any hour, which covers new trees and vegetable beds. For new sod or seed under sprinklers, apply for an establishment permit that lifts the three-day cap. Violators may be fined $100, though the utility says it leans on education first (Colorado Springs Utilities Water-Wise Rules; Colorado Springs Gazette, April 22, 2026).
Set rebate expectations low. There is no per-square-foot turf buyback here. The Native Grass Lawn Program gives free native grass seed, free high-efficiency sprinkler nozzles normally worth up to $100, and classes (KKTV, February 27, 2025). The state turf replacement program, funded at $2 million under HB22-1151, runs through local partners, so availability shifts year to year.
If it is a well, read this part twice
I am a REALTOR®, not a water attorney and not an engineer. Confirm everything below with the Colorado Division of Water Resources for the specific parcel.
El Paso County has more than 21,300 permitted groundwater wells and roughly 70 water providers, and the county's water master plan named Denver Basin depletion as the central long-term risk outside utility territory (El Paso County Water Master Plan, reported January 2019). Wells draw from four stacked aquifers: Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe and Laramie-Fox Hills. Local drillers note that wells 200 feet apart can have very different static water levels, so a neighbor's strong well is context, not evidence (Black Forest Water & Wells).
What blindsides buyers is what the permit permits. Under C.R.S. 37-92-602, a parcel under 35 acres typically gets a household-use-only permit: ordinary household purposes inside one single-family dwelling, with no allowed outdoor uses. No lawn. No garden. No watering horses, poultry or livestock unless that use was specifically added by amendment. At 35 acres or more, or in a qualifying cluster development, a domestic permit can allow irrigation of not over one acre of home lawn and garden plus domestic animals and livestock (Colorado Division of Water Resources Guideline 2023-1). Reporting on the same statute describes the larger-parcel permit as covering up to three single-family homes (Colorado Public Radio, July 9, 2025), which the guideline does not say. Read the permit, not the listing.
Exempt wells run about 15 gallons per minute and sit outside Colorado's priority system, which also exempts them from the augmentation rules that bind non-exempt Denver Basin wells (Colorado State University Colorado Water Knowledge). Prior appropriation reaches rain barrels too: two barrels, 110 gallons combined, rooftop downspouts only, outdoor use only, and the State Engineer can curtail them if a senior right holder proves injury (Colorado State University Extension, on HB16-1005).
Colorado sets no household yield standard. What buyers run into is lender practice, commonly described for FHA-insured loans as a sustained 3 to 5 gallons per minute during a drawdown test with total coliform absent and nitrate under 10 mg/L. Confirm that with your lender, then order both a yield test and a quality test as inspection items. The El Paso County Public Health lab sells a real estate package covering bacteriological, nitrate-N and nitrite-N for $80, or $23 for the bacteriological test alone. Drilling estimates for the county circulate in the $15,000 to $45,000 range depending on depth, but I have found no government source for that figure.
Find out who actually sells you the water
Plenty of addresses with Colorado Springs mail are not Colorado Springs Utilities customers. The El Paso County Assessor lists 13 separate water districts as taxing entities, among them Security Water District, Stratmoor Hills, Rock Creek Mesa and Forest View Acres, plus six water and sanitation districts including Donala, Widefield and Woodmoor. Metropolitan districts add more. Different provider, different rates, different rules, different tap fees, different water quality report. Ask before you are under contract. If you are shopping acreage, the Black Forest acreage guide covers more of what changes past the city line, and the custom build notes get into well and septic sequencing.
Quality, hardness, and the PFAS history south of town
Colorado Springs Utilities reported no violations or formal enforcement actions in its 2026 Drinking Water Quality Report, and it voluntarily tested 29 PFAS compounds in late 2024 and early 2025 with none above laboratory reporting limits. On hardness, the honest answer is that the utility publishes no value, so anyone quoting you one confidently is quoting a softener retailer. Snowmelt runs softer than Denver Basin groundwater. The U.S. Geological Survey calls water under 60 mg/L as calcium carbonate soft and above 180 very hard. Call your provider before buying equipment.
Now the part it would be a disservice to skip. Firefighting foam used at Peterson and the Colorado Springs airport contaminated the Widefield aquifer with PFAS, discovered in 2016, affecting Security Water District, Widefield Water and Sanitation District and the City of Fountain. One Security well tested at 1,370 parts per trillion against the 70 ppt EPA health advisory then in force. All three responded. Fountain shut its wells in October 2015 and began granular activated carbon treatment in June 2018. Widefield built the Southmoor treatment plant. Security brought an ion exchange plant online in April 2021, and its 2025 water quality report states no regulated PFAS detected above a 2.0 ppt reporting limit after treatment, with no violations.
The federal standard is still moving. EPA set enforceable limits of 4 ppt for PFOA and PFOS in April 2024, then on May 18, 2026 proposed pushing compliance from April 2029 to April 2031 and rescinding the determinations for four other PFAS. Neither proposal is final (U.S. EPA). Colorado Springs Utilities is a separate system and was not the affected supply. If you are buying in Security, Widefield or Fountain, ask the district for its most recent PFAS results in writing. They have them, and today's answer is far better than the headlines from a decade ago.
Common questions
Does Colorado Springs have enough water?
For now, more than its peers. Storage held roughly three years of customer demand in March 2026 at about 77% of capacity, above the threshold that triggers restrictions (SoCo Digest, March 2026). That is a snapshot, and the utility says storage can take multiple years to recover after a drought year.
Can I water my lawn in Colorado Springs?
Yes, up to three days a week on days you pick, and not with sprinklers between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. from May 1 through October 15. Drip lines and a handheld hose with a shut-off nozzle are fine any hour (Colorado Springs Utilities Water-Wise Rules).
Can I water a lawn if the house is on a well?
Often not. On parcels under 35 acres the standard exempt permit is household use only: indoor use in one dwelling, no outdoor watering at all (Colorado Division of Water Resources Guideline 2023-1). Check the permit before you fall for the yard.
Is the water safe in Security, Widefield and Fountain?
All three installed PFAS treatment after the 2016 discovery, and Security's 2025 report shows no regulated PFAS above its 2.0 ppt reporting limit. Ask the district for current results yourself, since federal standards keep shifting.
The checklist I actually use
- Confirm the water provider for that exact address in writing, not from the listing sheet.
- Ask the seller for twelve months of water bills, summer included.
- If it is a well, get the permit number and look it up in the Division of Water Resources well permit search.
- Order a yield or drawdown test and a water quality test as inspection items.
- Read the permit for whether irrigation and livestock are allowed, and put it in the file.
- South of the city, ask the district directly for its latest PFAS testing results.
- Check whether a metropolitan district levies separately for water on that parcel.
Inside utility territory, water is one of the stronger arguments for buying here instead of farther north, and almost nobody makes it out loud. Outside it, water is the most expensive thing a buyer can get wrong, and the paperwork that settles it is free to pull. If you are still choosing between areas, the honest relocation guide and what it is really like to live here cover the rest. None of this is legal or engineering advice.
Leah Behr is a licensed REALTOR® with the Behr & Behr Team in Colorado Springs. She works with buyers on both sides of the city limits line, where the water question changes completely. Get in touch with our team.
Behr & Behr Team is committed to Equal Housing Opportunity. All information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed and should be independently verified.
