Arvada council delays drought surcharge that would have left out multifamily buildings

DENVER — Arvada has no drought surcharge in effect, and its City Council “is continuing to discuss the value of a drought surcharge on water use,” according to the city’s water page. A proposed surcharge stalled over how it would treat different types of homes.

Mike Rawluk, who tracks local water policy for the Ralston Valley Coalition, said on The Kim Monson Show that the council took up the surcharge this week and delayed a decision about 45 days for further study. Rawluk, who attended the meeting, said it ran until nearly 1 a.m. He described the proposal as a tiered surcharge covering single-family residential, irrigation, and commercial customers, with multifamily buildings left out. That carve-out, Rawluk said, drove much of the discussion.

A surcharge that sorted homes by type

As Rawluk described the proposal, Arvada looked to build its own tiered structure after watching Denver Water move first. The surcharge would have applied to single-family residential accounts, irrigation accounts, and commercial customers under a tier system, while multifamily housing sat outside it. He called the exclusion “a bit curious.”

“But they left out multifamily. And that was a bit curious,” Rawluk said. “We looked at Denver Water’s language and Denver Water just stuck with residential as residential.”

The unequal treatment, Rawluk said, is what gave the council pause. “City council was not comfortable trying to pull out certain types of residences and exempt them while having other residences involved in this tier system,” he said. That discomfort, he said, produced the roughly 45-day continuance.

Rawluk’s argument was that water customers should be billed on what they use, not on what kind of building they live in. “And math doesn’t lie,” he said. “Everybody should be judged on math and not on type of residence or what have you.” A multifamily unit that uses more water and a single-family home that uses less should each be measured the same way, he said.

What Denver Water actually approved

The Arvada proposal followed a drought surcharge that the Denver Board of Water Commissioners approved April 8, 2026, under Board Resolution #003-2026. It is the utility’s first drought surcharge in more than 20 years, dating to the 2002 through 2004 drought.

Denver Water’s residential surcharge keys to each household’s average winter consumption, the baseline drawn from winter bills when little or no outdoor watering occurs. Use up to that baseline carries no surcharge. The next tier, covering use above the baseline up to an additional 15,000 gallons, costs an extra $1.10 per 1,000 gallons. Use beyond that costs $2.20 per 1,000 gallons. The charge applies to outdoor watering; essential indoor use is exempt.

Denver Water treats all residential customers as a single class keyed to that winter baseline, the point Rawluk raised in contrast to the Arvada plan. The surcharge appears on bills dated June 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027, or until further board action, and is projected to raise roughly $29 million. The surcharge reinforces a Stage 1 drought response that asks customers to cut water use by 20%.

Why both utilities acted

Colorado is in a drought, the reason both Denver Water and Arvada moved toward usage-based pricing this spring. Arvada declared a Stage 1 drought with mandatory watering restrictions effective April 15, 2026. Denver Water serves about 1.5 million people across Denver and its suburban distributor districts.

Rawluk said the city’s own messaging drew scrutiny at the meeting. He pointed to a staff slide stating that surcharges paired with watering restrictions help customers understand the value of water, which he said landed poorly with the council and the public. Several council members, he said, pressed the city to address its own water use before charging residents more.

What comes next

For now, no drought surcharge is in effect in Arvada, and the council is continuing to study one. The Denver Water surcharge is already in place and is reflected on bills beginning this month. Rawluk encouraged residents to attend city council and water board meetings, where the questions get decided. “These are very important,” he said. “We need to really get involved.”