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<br />SERVICE AREA CHARACTERISTICS <br /> <br />The Aurora Water system serves the population and water needs within the municipal boundaries <br />of Aurora spanning Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties. As of 2007, Aurora Water serves <br />approximately 306,908 people with 73,000 connections. Aurora is 144 square miles in area. <br />Aurora Water serves primarily single-family residential accounts with the remainder being <br />single-family attached, apartments, commercial, City of Aurora, and irrigation only accounts. <br /> <br />WA TER SYSTEM PROFILE <br /> <br />The City of Aurora established an independent water system in the early 1950s after previously <br />serving the City's needs by purchasing water through the Denver Water system. In the initial <br />years, municipal water was developed from alluvial wells along Cherry Creek. In the ensuing <br />years, a series of major water rights acquisitions and operating agreements were made and <br />pipelines, reservoirs, water treatment plants and distribution systems were constructed by the <br />Aurora Utilities Department to meet the City's water needs. Aurora Water currently has storage <br />capacity in 13 reservoirs and lakes and has two water treatment plants in addition to one water <br />reclamation plant. <br /> <br />Aurora Water - City's Utility Enterprise <br /> <br />Aurora Water (the Aurora Department of Utilities was renamed Aurora Water in 2005) serves as <br />the City of Aurora's water, wastewater and major drainage utility. Aurora Water plans, develops, <br />manages and operates the Water System for the benefit of the City's customers. It must meet all <br />state and federal regulatory standards of a municipal water provider and serve customer <br />satisfaction requirements under a range of water supply conditions and operating stresses. Aurora <br />Water has established itself at the highest levels of operational performance among large <br />municipal water utilities for its Water System. It has been recognized by the US Environmental <br />Protection Agency with its Director's Award under the Partnership for Safe Drinking Water <br />Program (2006) and by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies with its Gold Award for <br />Competitiveness Achievement (2006). <br /> <br />Water System Development <br /> <br />The first major elements of the current water system were associated with the Homestak:e Project <br />where water sources were developed jointly with Colorado Springs in the Eagle River basin, a <br />tributary of the Colorado River requiring a trans-mountain diversion into the Arl<ansas basin and <br />then into the South Platte basin. The project was completed in the late 1960's and included major <br />pipelines from the South Platte River to a new water treatment plant (the Kuiper Water <br />Treatment Plant, now named the Griswold Water Treatment Plant) across northern Douglas <br />County and southern Arapahoe County. Colorado River sources represent about one quarter of <br />the City's current water sources. <br /> <br />1 <br />