As we head toward fall, let's look back on all the rain we had this summer.
Daliah Singer for 5280 asks what it all meant this summer for CO: "For the first time in six years, 97 percent of the state is drought-free." (Contrast this, Singer writes, with 2013, a year in which 100 percent of the state was afflicted with drought.) Singer gives us a few points to take away here:
- Generally, the water situation in CO is the best it has been since 2011.
- That said, CO remains a semi-arid state, which means that responsible water usage must remain a priority.
- This year's ski season might have some spectacular powder days, but there's no guarantee here; the El Nino weather pattern could dump lots of snow on the Front Range, rather than the peaks.
Going back briefly to the second point about water usage and the law regarding its regulation, the Denver Water Board recently voted to continue adding fluoride to the drinking water system, as Amanda Zitzman reports for ABC 7 News.
"[Part of what we're doing with our existing policy," said the Denver Water Commissioner, "is we're being transparent [...] keeping constant levels of fluoride in the water - at a certain level - so that people know exactly what it is that they're consuming."