For the Love of Purple

The Rockies home opener has our resident #watergnome excited to throw on his jersey and purple cap to support his team — and his passion.

So he’s taking a journey along the recycled water system, following the purple pipe.

Can you guess this location?

The U.S. Census Bureau found that Colorado added 101,000 new residents in a single year.

Sustaining a growing city requires flexibility in resource usage.

Xcel Energy's Cherokee

Generating StationThe station, located in north Denver, is one of Xcel’s largest power plants in Colorado.

It also is working to become more environmentally friendly to meet Colorado Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act.

One part of that effort is the use of recycled water for cooling and plant operations. In fact, it is Denver Water’s largest recycled water customer, using up to 780 million gallons of recycled water per year.

Can you guess this location?

Denver residents have a reputation for their love of the outdoors.

Stapleton’s Central Park

This park boasts 80 acres of outdoor recreation in the heart of a thriving neighborhood.

It is Denver’s third largest park, and it saves 25 million gallons of drinking water a year by irrigating with treated recycled water.

Can you guess this location?

Speaking of landscaping, this location maintains 10 acres of irrigated landscapes, but that’s not why visitors flock there.

Denver Zoo

We’re certain the Denver Zoo loves the Colorado Rockies just as much as they adore their cubs, tigers and lions.

They also embrace sustainability.

Recycled water — which is treated to 1980s drinking water standards — provides 35 percent of the zoo’s irrigation water for landscaping throughout the property.

Can you guess this location?

When you live in Colorado, wildlife can be found right in your backyard.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

What was once a chemical weapons manufacturing facility is now a cleaned-up refuge for more than 330 species of wildlife, including birds, bison, coyote and deer.

It also uses recycled water to irrigate prairies and for emergency fire suppression.

Can you guess this location?

This places mixes the past, present and future, and boasts one of the most popular photography hotspots in the city.

Museum of Nature and Science

While recycled water is most commonly used for irrigation, the museum uses it in other ways.

Recycled water is used in place of drinking water to run the museum’s heating and cooling plant, which regulates the temperature within the museum.

Since the Recycled Water system came online in 2004, we have saved over 23 billion gallons of drinking water.

So while we welcome spring and cheer on the Rox today, we also pause to thank our recycled water customers who are using the right water for the right use.

Three cheers for purple!