Policy is becoming a water-supply tool in Colorado, as local governments use development codes, financing rules, and workforce requirements to reduce demand.

The second episode of Resilience in the Rockies examines how Broomfield, Denver Water, and Aspen are using governance to move conservation projects forward.

In Broomfield, where landscape irrigation accounted for an estimated 60 to 70 percent of annual water demand, a 2023 ordinance limits turf to 30 percent of new landscapes and caps outdoor use at 12 gallons per square foot annually.

The city developed the code after a WaterNow workshop and consultation with residents, elected officials, landscape architects, and homeowners associations.

Denver Water worked with WaterNow to finance more than half a billion dollars in replacements of customer-owned lead pipes—a type of private property investment that utilities traditionally could not place on their books or support with tax-exempt debt.

The resulting accounting and IRS approvals established a model Denver Water is now testing for turf removal and considering for watershed protection.

Aspen requires qualifying landscapes to meet water budgets, use efficient irrigation, and pass third-party audits because the headwaters community depends on snowpack and has only a few days of municipal storage.

To make the code enforceable in practice, WaterNow has helped Aspen train more than 100 landscape and irrigation technicians since 2018.

In each case, decisions about land use, public finance, and implementation are converting conservation goals into projects with measurable water-supply benefits.

waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability. Resilience in the Rockies is produced in collaboration with WaterNow and made possible in part by a grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board, with support from PCL Construction, Norris Design, Merrick, and the City of Greeley.

Bringing research, prototyping, production, and shipping under one roof can turn American manufacturing into a faster engine for water innovation.

Rob Gledhill, CEO of Blue-White Industries, offers an inside look at how the Huntington Beach company develops and manufactures equipment used in water and wastewater treatment.

Blue-White produces chemical metering pumps, flow meters, instrumentation, and complete chemical-feed systems for drinking water, industrial processes, and wastewater facilities.

Its Studio 53 research department brings engineers together with production workers, customer-service representatives, returns specialists, and customers to sketch ideas and rapidly test prototypes.

When rising demand strained production, employees built a second assembly line in three days and doubled manufacturing capacity within two weeks.

The same emphasis on simplicity reduced one developing product from about 30 parts to 11 while cutting its production timeline from 16 weeks to one week or less.

Production 3D printers, CNC machines, injection-molding equipment, welders, and laser cutters allow the company to make many components in-house instead of waiting for parts delayed in international supply chains.

Engineers also follow products into the field to see how operators use, misuse, or modify them, turning those observations into the next round of design changes.

The tour shows that “Made in America” can be more than a label of origin. It can also be a manufacturing strategy built around speed, supply-chain resilience, institutional knowledge, and continuous improvement.

waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.

Milwaukee’s water technology economy traces back roughly 150 years to breweries, tanneries, and meatpacking plants that created sustained demand for pumps, valves, meters, and pipes.

In this episode, Karen Frost, executive director of The Water Council, explains how that industrial history continues to shape the city’s leading role in developing and scaling water technology.

Water-intensive industries created demand for specialized equipment, and over time southeastern Wisconsin developed a dense network of water technology manufacturers.

Two of its most prominent companies, A.O. Smith and Badger Meter, became central to organizing that network into The Water Council in 2009.

Today, the nonprofit connects established manufacturers with startups, utilities, researchers, and international companies seeking routes into the U.S. market.

The broader ecosystem includes the Freshwater Collaborative, which links water programs and internship opportunities across all 13 University of Wisconsin campuses.

The BREW 2.0 post-accelerator brings about 10 companies into the network each year, helping businesses with working technologies and early revenue strengthen their sales strategies and industry relationships.

Many of those groups also converge at the ReFRESH Summit, which has convened manufacturers, utilities, entrepreneurs, researchers, and students around emerging water issues since 2007.

Frost’s goal is to keep extending Milwaukee’s industrial foundation by helping water technologies developed locally and around the world find the partners needed to reach the market.

waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability.