Population growth in Colorado Springs and other factors are increasing demand for electricity, water, gas and wastewater services. These services are provided to residents by Colorado Springs Utilities, which hosted its 2025 State of the Utility event on Wednesday morning.
The city owned utility has projects underway and planned for all four of its major services aimed at ensuring reliable service and balancing customer rates with the cost of new infrastructure and keeping the utility financially stable.
Most of the water used in Colorado Springs comes from the Colorado and Arkansas River Basins. Utilities CEO Travas Deal said owning water rights and collaborating with other users in these basins is key to sustainability.
“Good thing is we've been doing it for a long time,” he said. ”So we're sitting in a really good place with our water supply, good replenishable water, but we have to continue to make sure we're taking a look at these programs and being aggressive.”
Deal said those programs include water sharing projects with agricultural communities in the Lower Arkansas River Valley.
About 70 percent of the utility’s water is brought across the Continental Divide from the Colorado River, Deal said. Pipeline, ditches and reservoirs are part of the system that carries this transbasin water from the mountains to the city.
“It's our cheapest water to treat because it doesn't get touched by anybody else other than a few fly fishermen, some four-legged animals,” he said. “Nobody touches this water until it gets to our treatment plant.”
The utility aims to maintain about three years of water storage in its more than two dozen reservoirs. Deal said many of these facilities have been around for more than a century, so maintenance and upgrades are part of the utility’s planning process.
Nuclear power might also be part of the city’s future, he said, because even though the facilities are expensive they can operate for many decades.
“A lot of people get scared away with the sticker price of nuclear,” he said. “You're seeing these nuclear plants go out to 80 years now. That is a huge rate of return.”
Deal said that besides evaluating the possibility of nuclear power, other projects are also underway, including additional wastewater treatment plants, new gas lines, and battery storage facilities.
The utilities’ efforts to increase efficiency, encourage power usage during off peak times and other programs were also part of the presentation.
Colorado Springs Utilities Board president Dave Donelson also spoke at the event. City council members also serve as the utilities board.
- Billions in new projects expected to increase utility bill base rates in Colorado Springs
- Utility rates in Colorado Springs are slated to go up at the beginning of the year
- New Colorado Springs annexation is approved, but water and other concerns remain
- How water in Southern Colorado’s rivers gets divvied up before crossing state lines
- Perspectives on water after 30 years of talking about it in the Arkansas River Basin
