Aurora Restaurants move to serve water upon request

Jan 02, 2026

The kitchen of Urban Burma, a Burmese restaurant in Aurora that has adopted the city’s resolution to conserve water. Photo: Priya Shahi, Rocky Mountain PBS

NEWS

AURORA, Colo. — Thirsty? In Aurora restaurants, you might have to ask for water before it arrives.A November city council resolution asks restaurants to only serve water at customers’ request as a way to conserve water.

Although voluntary for now, the resolution becomes mandatory if the city enters one of three official drought stages triggered when water storage drops below 100,000 acre-feet, said Rory Franklin, a representative with Aurora Water.

Aurora’s water currently sits at 64 percent of total storage capacity, or 100,047 acre-feet, according to Aurora’s December Water report. The city’s reservoir levels are low for this time of year, Franklin said, but snowpack conditions through January, February, and March will determine whether storage rebounds by spring.

“I think this [resolution] is good. I don’t use [water] if I don’t need to. I am a minimalist. I’m very careful using water even in my own house,” said Sri Tan, owner of Urban Burma on East Colfax. Tan said he’s implemented common sense water usage since opening his restaurant six years ago.

“And this is with everything, not only water. So I have that kind of mindset already,” Tan said.

Tan opened his restaurant in 2019 to bring Burmese cuisine to the state. He wanted to bring the same diversity of Asian food he experienced in California to Colorado.

“Even here at the restaurant, we don’t sell water bottles because of the plastic,” he said. “I care about that too.”

Sri Tan, owner of Urban Burma in Aurora. Photo: Priya Shahi, Rocky Mountain PBS

Aurora Water said it cannot quantify how much water the water-on-request initiative will save, but they will make this an ongoing, continuous request of restaurants. California, New Mexico and Hawaii have enforceable ordinances that carry fines for restaurateurs who serve water as a matter of course.

“Aurora Water is not expecting to conserve much water by asking restaurants to serve water only upon request,” Franklin said.

“Much like other conservation measures — such as turning off the water while a person brushes their teeth or limiting shower times — small, visible actions help remind everyone that water is precious and conservation is a shared responsibility,” she said.

Harlan Reidmohr, who dined at Tan’s restaurant after the resolution took effect, said that the policy makes sense, especially in a dry state like Colorado where there’s fear of future water shortages.

“I think Denver and Aurora are probably using too much water in general,” said Reidmohr, who lives in Aurora.

“People water their lawns all the time. It doesn’t make sense. I think there needs to be more that’s done though, not just this but conserving water for a lot of different areas of our lives.”

Aurora has taken several steps in recent years to conserve water. In September 2025, the city adopted a Large Water Guide for commercial and industrial sites, setting daily water-use limits between 500 and 3,000 gallons per acre based on how much water a site can recover and reuse. The more it recycles, the more it can use.

In 2022, the city passed an ordinance limiting front and backyard turf, banning nonfunctional grass and decorative water features, and prohibiting spray watering in medians and along curbs for all new or renovated properties.

For now, Aurora continues to closely monitor snowpack levels, Franklin said, and the city is focused on storing more water. In the long-term, city planners have proposed a new reservoir, Wild Horse Reservoir, in Park County as a way to store a year’s worth of city water. The project is still in its planning phase.

Type of story: News
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