Why is The Pinery still on a two-day watering schedule at the end of October, when the summer heat is long gone? The cold has nothing to do with it. Pinery Water and Wastewater District owes water back to Cherry Creek, and the restrictions stayed in place so it can pay that debt.
The rules end Saturday, October 31. The bigger decision of this water year is still ahead. On November 18 the District's board holds a hearing on a rate structure that would bill outdoor water by the size of each lot. That proposal is the District's answer to what 2026 exposed, so it's worth understanding before it's adopted.
A Loan Against Cherry Creek
Most years the District gets about 70% of its water from renewable Cherry Creek sources. Only about 30% comes from deep wells in the nonrenewable Denver Basin aquifers. In the October 2026 Pinery Pipeline, the board wrote that this year "that ratio was roughly reversed."
Leaning harder on the wells wasn't enough. The District still had to pump a large amount of creek water while its rights were "out of priority." Colorado water law runs on "first in time, first in right," so senior rights get served first when the creek runs low. Under the District's court-approved augmentation plan, creek water pumped during those periods has to go back to the creek. The board calls it "a loan that must be repaid."
That's why the restrictions continued into a month when most lawns barely need water. The board extended them through October 31 so it could return enough water to stay within the plan.
The trouble started well before summer. The District declared Stage 3 drought as of May 1, 2026, after a dry, warm winter left snowpack at record lows. Low snowpack means low creek flows in spring and summer. The board described it as "one of the most challenging years the District has faced."
Many neighboring areas never went that far. As of its August 15 report, The Denver Post found that 13 of Colorado's 25 largest cities and towns had not imposed additional mandatory restrictions. Pinery customers spent all summer on a stricter schedule than much of the Front Range.
How the Stage System Actually Triggers
The District's stages come from a Drought Response Plan the board approved in 2022. One of its triggers is a reservoir most residents have never seen.
| Stage | Label | Triggers include | Use reduction target | Key actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stage 2 | Moderate Drought, Warning | Walker Reservoir below 80% capacity | 10% | Voluntary restrictions, water usage audits |
| Stage 3, current | Extreme Drought, Critical | Walker Reservoir below 65%; 10% loss of production in alluvial wells | 20% | Mandatory restrictions, limits on new sod and filling swimming pools |
| Stage 4 | Exceptional Drought, Emergency | Walker Reservoir below 35%; 30% loss of production in alluvial wells | 30% | Limits on new taps, mandatory restrictions on large irrigators such as golf courses, ban on ornamental water features |
The Colorado Drought Monitor map is another trigger, and it updates every Thursday. Stage 4 is where golf courses would face mandatory limits. In a community built around The Pinery Country Club, that step matters. Under Stage 3, every customer class has been asked to cut use by 20%.
Walker Reservoir Is Now the Hinge
Walker Reservoir sits in Franktown and was completed in early 2025, according to the District's July 2026 newsletter. That issue also explains why the District sold its stake in WISE. WISE was a shared deal to buy surplus water from Denver Water and Aurora Water. The District says WISE water came on an "interruptable" basis and "was rarely helpful during the times of peak demand," because much of it arrived outside the summer peak.
The District says the WISE sale proceeds will help pay to expand the reservoir, drill wells and build supporting infrastructure. By October, the board said it was "starting the process" of expanding Walker Reservoir and adding a new deep well at the site. The goal is more storage and a better way to fill it when Cherry Creek rights are out of priority, which is exactly what went wrong this summer. The District has not yet published a capacity, timeline or cost for the expansion.
Expanding the reservoir is meant to give the District more water to work with. The rate proposal goes after how much of that water ends up on lawns.
The November Question Is How Much, Not When
The District already has restrictions that control when you can water. The proposed water-budget rate structure would control how much water is appropriate for each lot, and what you pay for it. The District's Water Budget FAQs say plainly that the two work separately. A customer could follow the watering schedule and still go over budget, and staying under budget wouldn't permit watering on off days.
Under the proposal in the October newsletter, each residential customer would get:
- Indoor: 5,000 gallons per month, about 165 gallons a day, the same all year.
- Outdoor: enough water to keep Kentucky bluegrass healthy on 30% of the lot, capped at 30% of a one-acre lot. A quarter-acre lot would get water for about 3,300 square feet of lawn. Lots of an acre or more would top out at about 13,000 square feet.
- Seasonal spread: the outdoor budget would be divided across the watering season based on historical use, with more water in the hottest months.
The 30% figure has a source. The District analyzed properties within its boundaries and found that, on average, about 27% of a residential lot is irrigable. The proposed allowance sits a little above that average. Because of the cap, any land beyond about an acre adds nothing to a lot's outdoor budget. The budget would only apply from April through October. From November through March, billing would be based on usage alone.
Two tier structures are proposed, with the dividing line at half an acre:
| Tier | Lots under ½ acre | Lots over ½ acre |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Indoor | Indoor |
| Tier 2 | Outdoor, inside budget | Outdoor, inside budget and under 0.55 AF |
| Tier 3 | Outdoor, outside budget and under 0.55 AF | Outdoor, inside budget and over 0.55 AF |
| Tier 4 | Excess, outside budget and over 0.55 AF | Excess, outside budget |
That 0.55 acre-foot line is the amount the District assumes one household uses in a year. It's also the amount the District plans to acquire and hold for each household. One acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, so 0.55 acre-feet comes to roughly 179,000 gallons a year. The indoor allowance alone adds up to 60,000 gallons over twelve months. Everything above that, in the District's planning, is outdoor water.
The District has been direct about why it wants this change. It says it is at the point of needing to invest "tens of millions of dollars" in pump stations, pipelines and storage tanks to keep up with recent growth. Using outdoor water more efficiently is a way to "try to defer (or avoid altogether) these capital investments." The FAQ says the District expects the structure to "be in place for many years." A study focused on the water-budget structure was finished in June 2026.
The proposal hasn't been adopted, and the District hasn't published rate amounts for each tier. The board was scheduled to review a first draft on October 14. It moved its regular October meeting up a week from October 21 for that review. The public hearing on proposed rates and fees comes at the November meeting.
The Last Days of Stage 3, in Order
- Friday, October 30. Fridays are still off-limits, and the District says "no watering of any kind is allowed on Fridays." Through Thursday, sprinklers run only on the two days assigned to your address, before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. The District allows hand-watering of trees, shrubs and potted plants under its own rules. Check the 2026 Mandatory Watering Schedule for your assigned days and hand-watering rules. Under the 2026 fee schedule, a first violation brings a warning, a second costs $75, and each one after that costs $100.
- Saturday, October 31. The extended restrictions expire.
- Before the first hard freeze. The District recommends a professional blowout to clear water from lines and backflow devices. It also suggests checking heads and valves for damage first, adjusting the controller, and booking early so you're not left waiting until after a freeze.
- Wednesday, November 18, 6 p.m. The regular board meeting at the District office, where the public hearing on proposed rates and fees is expected.
Homeowners who expect to land above the proposed outdoor allowance have another option. The Turf Replacement Program and the Slow the Flow program are both still running, and Resource Central offers free sprinkler evaluations.
This post is general information about a District proposal, not legal or financial advice. Confirm how any adopted rates apply to your property directly with Pinery Water.
Water allowances are becoming part of what a Pinery lot is, along with acreage and views. If you'd like to talk through how irrigable area, lot size and the proposed half-acre line fit together on a specific property, Derek Thomas Real Estate can walk through it with you. Let's Connect.