Eagle River District Raises Water Tiers as Drought Hits

“People don’t need lawns here.”

That’s the blunt assessment from Kady Warble, a longtime local landscaper who is actively ripping out turf and replacing it with native plants. She’s not talking about a niche trend for eco-conscious hipsters. She’s talking about the beige, irrigated squares dominating neighborhoods like Singletree.

The context is simple. Colorado just endured its worst winter on record. Lakes and rivers are at all-time lows. Green grass isn’t just out of style anymore — it’s borderline tacky, environmentally speaking. And if you’re holding onto that emerald carpet, you’re burning cash.

The Eagle River Water & Sanitation District is ready to make it hurt. They’re measuring water use in five tiers. Homeowners typically get three designated watering days a week. That number will likely drop this summer. If you use more, you pay more. Higher tiers trigger surcharges. Excessive use triggers fines.

“We’re encouraging folks to keep water use low,” says Robyn Janssen, the district’s Communications Specialist. “Talk to property managers and landscapers so everyone is in alignment.”

The message is clear: let the unused parts of your lawn go dormant. Grass is the biggest water-consumptive plant we have. Let it sleep. It will come back.

Second homeowners are the primary offenders. They flew in for a week in July, saw brown grass, and panicked. They turned the irrigation on full-bore from the get-go. Warble says they need to learn that their lawns will survive the drought. If you insist on keeping grass, irrigate once or twice a week. Just enough to help it adjust.

But why keep it at all?

Warble is currently swapping out irrigation systems for drip lines on a friend’s property. Drip irrigation delivers water directly to the roots. No evaporation. No spraying into the air. It’s above-ground, sure, but you can hide it under mulch. The goal is to let plants grow large and cover the tubes. It’s cost-effective. It sets plants up for success.

“People should have these irrigation systems evaluated,” Warble says. “They could be saving 10,000 gallons a month.”

That’s not a rounding error. That’s a significant chunk of water pulled from a system already struggling to meet demand.

The shift isn’t just about survival. It’s about history. Lawns were a status symbol in the 1980s. When houses in Singletree were built, people assumed water was infinite. They planted anything they wanted. We now know that assumption was wrong.

Resource specialists are pushing perennials over annuals. Perennials come back. They’re established. They’re tougher. Annuals are high-maintenance guests that need constant attention and water.

The short version: stop overwatering. Switch to drip. Plant natives. Let the grass go dormant.

If you’re still expecting your yard to look like a golf course in August while the rest of the valley turns gold, you’re going to get hit with the surcharge. The district isn’t asking nicely anymore. They’re measuring. And the meter is running.

Read that again. The meter is running.