Project Goal
This project will develop targeted commercial water use benchmarks for key business types in Thornton to help the City better track and forecast water demand and inform efforts to develop a more equitable tap fee structure in the future
Our Approach
Thornton, CO is home to approximately 148,000 people living in Colorado’s Front Range, with a water service area population of 165,000. Currently, the City’s utility billing database does not distinguish business types within the commercial customer class, making it challenging to determine water use trends for different business types and to project future water demand. WaterNow and Thornton are partnering to identify appropriate water use benchmarks for key business types, such as restaurants, hotels, warehouses, schools, car washes, medical facilities, automotive services, offices, industrial and retail.
This project will research existing commercial water use benchmarks implemented in other communities to understand the methodologies used to determine business specific benchmarks and the various outcomes of benchmark implementation. Next, the project team will conduct a commercial water use analysis to establish draft commercial water use benchmarks for key business types in Thornton. The project team will meet with commercial water users and/or professionals with subject matter expertise to share the draft benchmarks and gather feedback, as well as explore the support commercial water users may need to meet the proposed benchmarks. WaterNow will then finalize the commercial water use benchmarks and work with Thornton to provide guidance on benchmark implementation.
Outcomes
Stay tuned! This project is currently underway.
