In a bold move the Castle Pines North Metro District (CPNMD) has challenged each of their 3500 customers and 30 HOAs to "Get WARPed."

WARP stands for the Water Awareness and Responsibility Program, a public education program designed to increase water conservation awareness. According to CPNMD district manager, Jim McGrady, "By getting WARPed, the citizens of Castle Pines North (CPN) can help achieve a more secure future for the community."

CPN is one of many Douglas County communities whose water is derived solely from non-renewable wells which experts predict by 2022 will no longer meet demand.

Through water conservation and conscientious use of current supplies, the citizens of CPN can help keep water costs to a minimum and assure an adequate water supply for the future. While the CPNMD works to identify alternative sources of water, the citizens of the community can to do their part to conserve the resources we already have. As CPN resident April Parcells put it, "Conservation is our cheapest source of new water."

Since the initial WARP rollout in April, the WARP team has shared water conservation messages with over 3,000 children in the CPN area through school assemblies, classroom presentations, email blasts, and school web sites. Students completed hundreds of conservation activity sheets, coloring contest entries, and tested their toilets for leaks with kits provided by the CPNMD.

The WARP team also threaded conservation awareness through development of a high school essay contest linked to a CPNMD college scholarship. Essayists described, "Why it is important to Get WARPed". Sixteen-year-old Max Larsson, an essay contest award finalist describes water conservation this way, "If people can learn to cut back, "conserving" will simply become known as "using."

McGrady said, "CPN children are learning how they can conserve water and are becoming conservation ambassadors. Children are the best "water cops" around and with the education from the WARP program; they are helping to influence the water usage of their parents and the community as a whole."

Adult residents also got involved in the WARP program by completing water conservation questionnaires. The questionnaire was designed to educate the homeowners on the community's need to conserve along with conservation tactics and tools. Residents learned about allotted water budgets, from where CPN's water comes, about CPNMD rebates, and techniques for smarter irrigation and landscaping.

Dan Schmick, CPNMD's finance manager said, "CPN is definitely getting WARPed, and it's starting to show. All together over 300 citizens completed water conservation questionnaires, and rebate submissions for the first 6 months of 2008 are greater than submissions for all of 2007.

In addition, the CPNMD sponsored three educational seminars, which were organized by the WARP team where HOA Board members, HOA Managers, and landscape maintenance companies were supplied with knowledge to help them wisely manage community common grounds. Attendees learned about weather-based irrigation controllers, new methods and products for smart irrigation, and legislation that empowers these covenant controlled HOA's to freely allow their homeowners to convert to more water responsible landscaping.

Ted Lohr, CPNMD board president stated, "Residents are learning to use water wisely. More CPN citizens are committing to getting WARPed every day which demonstrates the community's respect for Colorado's most precious resource."

If you haven't already gotten WARPed, get on board today. To learn more about the WARP program go to www.cpnmd.org and click on Water Awareness & Responsibility Program and for those of you who have already gotten WARPed - great work!