Connecting People To Conservation | Resilience In The Rockies

Colorado communities are treating public engagement as water infrastructure, using trusted messengers, targeted outreach, and practical programs to turn conservation strategies into action.

The third episode of Resilience in the Rockies examines how Summit County, Boulder, and Aurora are reaching people who can determine whether water-saving programs actually work, plus how technical assistance from WaterNow enables the programs.

In Summit County, High Country Conservation Center helps connect more than 15 water providers, several mountain towns, residents, businesses, and landscapers through rebates, irrigation assessments, training, and demonstration gardens.

That regional role matters because local utilities often lack the staff capacity to design and run conservation programs while also operating treatment plants, repairing leaks, and serving customers.

Boulder is taking a different approach as it rethinks how to reach a community where more than half of residents are renters and the University of Colorado brings roughly 40,000 students with widely different connections to local water issues.

After reducing per-capita water use by about 30 percent since 2002, the city is developing a new conservation communications strategy that focuses on people often missed by traditional government outreach.

That work includes plain-language communication, translation, accessibility for people using assistive devices, and more deliberate outreach to residents who may not already have strong connections to city government.

In Aurora, where more than 180 languages are spoken, the challenge is building understanding of water reuse in a city that imports water from several major river basins and relies on Prairie Waters to stretch existing supplies.

Aurora Water, Metro Water Recovery, and the Aurora Health Alliance are working with public health professionals as trusted messengers, giving them direct exposure to drinking water treatment, wastewater processes, and reuse so they can answer questions from patients and community members with greater confidence.

Across all three communities, the lesson is that conservation programs become more effective when people understand the choices in front of them, trust the information they receive, and have a clear path to act on it.

Resilience in the Rockies is produced in collaboration with WaterNow and made possible in part by a grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, with support from PCL Construction, Norris Design, Merrick, and the City of Greeley.