As recipients of pristine snow-fed waters, we consciously conserve.
Program Partners
Water, elevated...
Snowmass Village is fortunate to have very high quality drinking water.
Snowmass Water and Sanitation District (SWSD) receives water from three mountain streams all within a mile of the ski area. The intake points are high up in the watershed with little to no human activity upstream. As a result, there is very little opportunity for human-created pollutants to enter the water we drink.
SWSD filters and disinfects the water according to tightly regulated state and federal standards and delivers it to homes and businesses for drinking and other indoor and outdoor uses.
Snowmass Creek
Q: Is it safer to drink bottled water than our local water?
Our local tap water is closely regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has strict rules on water quality. Bottled water, on the other hand, is regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which has less stringent criteria for certain water quality standards. With Snowmass’s local water, you can be assured it meets the highest standards for publicly available water and SWSD releases a yearly water quality report available here:
Read SWSD’s Water Quality Report (PDF)
Snowmass Creek
Bottled vs Local
... a few more considerations
When you add in the energy costs of producing and shipping bottled water, and the reality that the majority of empty plastic bottles end up in landfills (yes, even the ones that are recycled), it becomes a no brainer for the environment and our health to drink our stream fed water here in Snowmass. Plus, bottled water costs 500 to 1000 times more per gallon than tap water!
Brush Creek
Conservation
February and March are the months with the lowest stream flows each year.
Snowmass lives on what nature delivers each winter.
Water held in snowpack feeds our streams and comes to our tap. In Snowmass, we draw from surface water and not groundwater wells.
Snowpack is important for more than just our region. The Roaring Fork Valley provides 10% of the water entering the Upper Colorado River Basin each year, though it represents just .5 % of the total land mass.
Things are changing. Since 1980, there are 30 fewer days of winter each year, dipping below 32 degrees in the Aspen/Snowmass area. That means more exposure of soils to sun, more evaporation and lower stream flows.
Enjoy. Conserve.
Wanna help?
A few steps can save thousands of gallons of water. (literally)
Indoors:
- Catch leaks and fix as soon as possible. Silent running toilets can easily leak hundreds of gallons daily.
- Take showers instead of baths
- Use low-flow water fixtures and toilets. When buying new fixtures, look for the WaterSense label. And low-flow does not mean low water pressure!
Don’t waste the Good Stuff!
Water conscious can still be green.
Consider planting lower water use landscapes. (They can be beautiful!)
Outdoors
Use less water by making irrigation systems more efficient.
- Use a rain sensor which shuts off irrigation when it’s raining. An inexpensive addition to most systems.
- Use efficient modern sprinkler heads
- Look for inconsistent coverage, where too much water is reaching one area while other areas are not receiving enough. If an area is dry, it may not need longer watering times but an adjustment in the spray pattern. Talk to a landscape professional to adjust your coverage.
East Snowmass Creek
Snowmass Creek
Our Source Waters:
Our primary watersheds are surrounded by 14,000 ft peaks which hold snow late into the summer.
Snowmass Ski Area
East Snowmass Creek and Snowmass Creek are small but critical water sources that provide over 98% of the water to Snowmass Village. They are just over the hill from the ski area. The stream that is visible near base village is Brush Creek and is not a significant source of drinking water.
0177 Clubhouse Dr.
Snowmass Water and Sanitation District (SWSD) delivers clean drinking water across 45 miles of pipes in Snowmass Village. After indoor use, wastewater goes to our state-of-the art wastewater facility along lower Brush Creek.
We are proud to partner with local organizations to promote water conservation. To learn more and support our work, we invite you to visit SWSD.org or contact us:
970-923-2056
