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Denver Water has prepared a Drought Response Plan to be used as a guide for identifying and responding to drought conditions. For purposes of defining drought response triggers, Denver uses projected reservoir storage levels as of July I". Denver's drought plan is based upon three levels of drought severity and identifies demand reduction goals associated with each drought level, as summarized below. Denver's plan includes a "Menu of Possible Board Actions to Cut Water Use" for each of the drought levels. The menu includes measures to temporarily increase water supplies, reduce deliveries of water to contract customers outside the City and County of Denver, education programs to increase public awareness and encourage voluntary conservation, and mandatory water use restrictions. The board may select the combination of measures it determines are necessary and appropriate to meet the applicable water use reduction goal, given the circumstances at the time. Denver Water initially projected that its reservoirs would reach at least 80% full by July 1 St , but subsequently reduced its projections and, in accordance with its drought response plan, began mandatory watering restrictions by mid - summer, in spite of having generally adequate reservoir supplies. Denver did have a problem with its North End system. The North End pulls water from the Fraser and Williams Fork Rivers, both tributary to the Colorado, through the Moffat Tunnel under the Continental Divide, to Gross Reservoir on South Boulder Creek, a South Platte tributary. From the North End, Denver must meet several raw water contract obligations, but there is far less storage than in the remainder of the system. In the south portion of its system, Denver Water transferred the contents of Antero Reservoir to Cheesman Reservoir in order to reduce evaporation and help mitigate the water quality effects of the Hayman Fire. The water is still there, but is more efficiently used. Denver Water adopted Stage 1 drought response measures on June 5, 2002 and asked all customers to voluntarily reduce water use enough to achieve a 10% reduction in demand. Due to the rapidly increasing severity of the drought, Denver then declared a Stage 2 drought response on June 26, 2002 and imposed mandatory water use restrictions, effective July 1, designed to achieve a system -wide demand reduction of 30 %. During July and August 2002, the severity of the drought became more apparent, with streams in some areas flowing at 10% of average and 30% to 50% less than the lowest 22 Table IVA. Denver Water Drought Levels and Water Use Reduction Goals