Town of Vail won’t run Children’s Fountain this summer, council decides
Feature determined to use too much water for current drought conditions
Courtesy image
Town of Vail staff members on June 10-11 ran a test of the town’s three water features to see how much water each consumes.
After seeing the numbers, the Vail Town Council on Tuesday decided it can’t, in good conscience, run the Vail Village Children’s Fountain this summer.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s responsible for us to use the Children’s Fountain,” said Council Member Dave Chapin. “We need to find another way of engaging there. I don’t know what it might be.”
The Children’s Fountain was found to consume approximately 700 gallons of water per day and needs to run continuously, while the Slifer Fountain and the Lionshead Sunbird Park Splash Pad can be turned on and off and use much less water.
The Eagle River Water and Sanitation District has asked the town of Vail to reduce water use by one-third this summer due to the low snowpack experienced in the Rocky Mountains this past winter. Snowpack on Vail Mountain was the lowest in recorded history this past winter, one of several area sites that saw record-breaking low-snow conditions.
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That resulted in the 66,000 acre-foot Historic User Pool at Green Mountain Reservoir not filling this year for the first time since that pool was established in the 1970s. The Eagle River Water and Sanitation District receives a small amount of water from that user pool, one of nearly 300 domestic and municipal water providers in Eagle, Summit and other Western Slope areas that are covered by that pool.
The town of Vail has said it will attempt to exceed the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District’s request and reduce water use by one-half or more this summer, which promoted town staff to conduct the tests on the town’s water features.
The Slifer Fountain was found to average around 300 to 400 gallons per day with the cascading feature, but had low-use days that were under 100 gallons during July 2025. The Slifer Fountain contains a cascading feature that can be turned on and off, which cuts down on that fountain’s water usage.
The town plans to fill the Slifer Fountain but will turn off the cascading feature and will monitor water use there, hoping to see numbers similar to those found on low-use days last summer. If it is found to be using more water than anticipated, the Slifer Fountain could be turned off as well, the council said.
“As much as I hate turning them off, I think it’s totally irresponsible to run them, and I do think it reinforcences the fact that we are in, I hope, a temporary crisis,” said Council Member Jonathan Staufer.
The splash pad at Sunbird Park in Lionshead uses approximately 100 to 150 gallons per day when it runs full time in a normal season, and can be operated on a shortened schedule if desired.
“The one in Lionshead, if it’s not really losing that much, that would be fine,” said Council Member Kim Langmaid. “But if we’re asking our entire community to save water and then we’re (running the Children’s Fountain) it does not seem responsible.”
