Winterization is key

How important is winterization? Anyone who has had a broken backflow device would say, "very!" These cool fall days are a great time to prepare your landscape to survive the winter and bounce back next spring. A healthy landscape takes less water and less maintenance!

Aerate your lawn at least once per year during the growing season to break up compacted soil and allow more nutrients to reach the roots.
Apply a thin layer of compost into the lawn after aeration to enrich the soil.
Mulch perennial beds up to 4 inches to keep roots warm.
Don’t prune perennials until spring. Branching and seed heads on plants provides important winter food for wildlife.
Wrap young tree trunks to prevent sun and ice damage.

Most importantly, shut down your irrigation system. This will require you to turn off the outdoor water source, drain the line between the turn off valve and backflow device, and blow the water out of the irrigation lines. Not only are broken irrigation and backflow devices potentially costly to replace, small leaks in the irrigation system are a primary water waster.

Does Castle Rock have enough water?

With or without growth, Castle Rock Water has been planning for the future. Five years ago, Castle Rock pulled 100 percent of its water from underground aquifers. Not only were we slowly depleting this source, it took a lot of energy and cost to pump millions of gallons from 2,000 feet below the Earth’s surface. Now, we are slowly reducing our dependence on that single supply.

In 2013, Castle Rock Water began pulling renewable water from Plum Creek. This supply is replenished each year and easily accessible. In 2018, we began importing renewable water from northern sources (WISE water). Though it is pumped from miles away, we use gravity to help get the water here.

Another supply source on the horizon is reuse. Castle Rock plans on recapturing water from the creek that was treated and released from the wastewater treatment plant. That water will then be purified at our Plum Creek Water Treatment Facility to meet or exceptional drinking water standards.

Reuse water will be one of the most cost effective solutions to our water supply. That Castle Rock has a strong and reliable water future!

Planning for new development, landscapes and water needs

Planning for future water supply is also about planning for community character. With half of all water used in Castle Rock going to outdoor irrigation, the Town focuses many regulations on non-residential landscaping. Many of these regulations have been in place for years, and Castle Rock Water periodically revises its landscaping criteria. Non-residential accounts include commercial businesses, roadway medians, and HOA open spaces.

All development landscape plans must go through a design review process for irrigation systems and prescribed low-water use plant selection with an onsite final inspection
Non-residential properties cannot install the high-water use Kentucky Bluegrass. This year, that was also extended to new residential lots
Also new this year, Castle Rock Water required low-water-use plant materials for road right-of-ways and medians. This helped reduced overall turf areas for new developments
Incentives are provided to developers for low-water-use practices
Non-residential customers must follow a watering schedule during irrigation season
Training and certification is requirement for landscape professionals
Town-owned property, such as parks, must follow these rules. Additionally, the continued effort to replace Kentucky Bluegrass with artificial turf, and include ColoradoScape in low-traffic areas, is moving forward

Castle Rock Water is also prescribing ColoradoScape and hopes residents, businesses and developments include more colorful and varied types of plants in landscaping. Community aesthetics is a key goal in keeping Castle Rock’s beauty and charm.

See how Castle Rock Water is securing our water future

Water plans - protecting resources through environmentally sound development
Water Use Management Plan - demand management tool for irrigation season
Water Efficiency Plan - water demand projections and supply sources
Landscape Criteria Manual - non-residential landscape regulations
Conservation tips - Town specific weather stations, plant list and tips
ColoradoScape gallery - residential landscapes in Town that take less water