Aurora City Council advances Integrated Water Master Plan 2 for further consideration

Sarah Young, assistant general manager for Aurora Water, presented a resolution to adopt the Integrated Water Master Plan 2 (IWMP 2) during the Aurora City Council study session on March 10, 2025. "What we have for you is a resolution to adopt, the Integrated Water Master Plan 2," Young told council members as she introduced the plan.

James De Herrera, Planning Services Manager for Aurora Water, described the IWMP 2 as a holistic 20-year planning tool that evaluates water resources, transmission pipelines, treatment facilities and the distribution system together to produce a prioritized capital improvement plan. "The key word there being integrated," De Herrera said, describing the cross-disciplinary analysis the plan uses to identify system deficiencies and projects.

The plan introduces two tiers of levels of service: target levels that describe the desired state and minimum levels that allow flexibility under constrained resources while maintaining acceptable service. Young and De Herrera said those levels of service inform project sizing and prioritization across treatment, transmission and distribution. Staff singled out an "emergency reserve" — water held to cover major critical outages — and identified it as a rationale for a reservoir project cited in the presentation. Staff also said the Otero system brings roughly 50% of Aurora's supply from the Colorado and Arkansas basins, making reserves and interconnections important to resilience.

Council members asked technical questions. Mayor Pro Tem Sonnenburg asked whether California fire responses that experienced hydrant and low-pressure problems were due to multiple simultaneous demands or systemwide pressure deficits; De Herrera said design practice models fire flows for single, localized events and noted that systems are not typically sized to sustain many simultaneous large fires. Councilwoman Burger asked about the role of looped mains in sustaining supply during multiple concurrent demands; staff replied that the city generally requires looped systems for firefighting and reliability, with some exceptions for specific large-diameter conveyance lines.

Council took no final vote to adopt the plan. Instead, by unanimous-consent procedure (no objections recorded), council agreed to "move 3A forward" for additional consideration in the regular council process. Staff emphasized that adoption of levels of service in the plan does not in itself fund projects; individual projects remain subject to the city's annual budgeting process.

The council action advances IWMP 2 to the next step of review but does not represent final adoption of the 20-year capital program.