Increased snowpack puts Colorado Springs water supply ahead

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- With more than a foot of snow across the Pikes Peak region in the past month, Colorado Springs Utilities says the water worries are over for now.

Planning supervisor Kalsoum Abbasi gave the details at a meeting on Wednesday.

She says, right now, they have more than three years worth of water stored in reservoirs. That supply would only dry up if the region saw multiple drought years in a row.

Abbasi said 2019 saw plenty of snow and rainfall, and 2020 is off to a great start.

"We are pretty far ahead of where we typically would be at this time of year," she said. "So we’re really waiting for spring runoff, and I think this year we’ll probably have more runoff than we can store in reservoirs."

Colorado Springs Utilities is stressing that the new rules restricting how often residents use their sprinklers are permanent and will not be changing, no matter how much water is in storage.

While the current water supply is looking strong, some CSU customers have stated concerns that there isn’t enough water to cover the growing population here in the area for the decades to come.

CSU officials did not address that concern during Wednesday’s meeting.