EDITORIAL: Murky water messages aren’t selling with Aurora residents this time around

For too many Aurora residents, city officials are all wet when it comes to explaining how lucky Aurora residents are to be paying some of the highest water rates in the metro area and suffering some of the harshest drought restrictions.

The city needs to do a better job at explaining what’s going on.

Here’s the problem. For the past decade, as Aurora water and tap rates have climbed ahead, and far ahead, of other metro-area water rates, city officials have assured everyone that the much ballyhooed Prairie Water Project, which cost about $660 million, would “drought harden” the city’s water system, preventing water shortages during lean snow-pack years. The fear of going dry was instilled in city lawmakers after a sustained drought at the turn of the century, prompting a complex marvel that pumps South Platte water miles downstream of Aurora back up to the city.

Here’s the public-relations problems Aurora has painted itself into:

Each time city council members approved water rate hikes, they lauded the Prairie Water project publicly for protecting the city during droughts. In 2010, water rates increased by 7.5 percent over 2009, in 2009 they increased by 8 percent, and in 2008, 2007, and 2006 there was a 12-percent increase. In 2003 and 2004 water rates increased by 15 percent over the previous years to pay for the Prairie Waters project.

It was a lot of rate hikes, and a lot of bragging. Last year, the city controversially agreed to sell water to Andarko for fracking, sell water for bottling, lease water to other cities, and kept bragging about how lucky city residents are for having invested in the Prairie Waters Project.

City residents are feeling so lucky right now as they look at big water bills and big water restrictions, the same restrictions other metro-area cities must endure without the financial burden of the magnificent Prairie Waters Project.

We have long lobbied for imposing new rules limiting thirsty landscapes in what is really a desert, and we have long appealed to existing residents to give up thirsty lawns. We get it. So do many Aurora residents. And what many overlook is that the city’s controversial water sales involve water Aurora residents really can’t use, such as downstream water for Andarko. Also during extreme droughts, the city can halt the sales.

But for most residents, the perception is that Prairie Waters did nothing to “drought harden” the water system, but it did plenty to hike their water bills. They have nothing else to conclude since they’re under the same watering restrictions as their municipal neighbors paying much less for their restricted water.

The logical conclusion we’re expected to draw is that if the city hadn’t built Prairie Waters, Aurora would be completely out of water. That would mean that the city has sold far too many water taps for what it can realistically support.

The reality is, Aurora’s water system and problems are hugely complicated. Even though the city is netting more potentially potable water, it needs more local storage. And the reality is, we don’t have more storage, we can’t afford to build more storage, and the city’s available water situation isn’t as dire as Aurora officials are making it out to be. While Aurora water officials aren’t crying “wolf” here, there’s been too much hyperbole all the way around, and it’s causing credibility problems now. They can’t have it both ways. Either the situation is dire, and Prairie Waters was a boondoggle. Or we’re not nearly as troubled as our neighbors. It’s something in between, and that’s a hard message to sell.