First Steps to Getting Your Project Approved with Denver Water

The first step to getting a project approved with Denver Water is to confirm whether it needs a formal Denver Water plan review, and the second is to get your design engineer through Denver Water's online training before the first submittal. Main extensions, fire hydrants, fire lines and domestic connections 3 inches and larger, and water line relocations all need one.

Does your project need a Denver Water plan review?

It does if it includes any one of four items. A project with only 2-inch and smaller taps does not.

Denver Water's Plan Reviews page lists the triggers:

• Main extensions for new development
• Fire hydrants
• Fire sprinkler and domestic connections 3 inches and larger
• Water line relocations or modifications

The tap guide on that page is where people get caught. A 3/4-inch to 2-inch tap, alone or with a fire line of 2 inches or smaller, goes to Tap Sales for a site plan layout review. Add a hydrant or a fire line 3 inches or larger and it becomes a plan review, and every existing and new small tap goes on the overall plan. For developers and builders, this list is the first check on a new site.

Landscaping has its own track. Under Denver Water's irrigation and landscape plan requirements, a tap supplying an acre or more of irrigated or landscaped property, or a green roof, needs a separate review.

Does Denver Water review projects outside Denver?

Yes, across its Combined Service Area: Denver plus the distributors that buy its water. In a distributor area, pipe 3 inches and larger goes through Denver Water plan review and the distributor's own requirements.

Denver Water's Engineering Standards, 17th Edition, set out the contract areas. In Total Service areas, Denver Water runs the distribution system. In Read and Bill and Master Meter areas, the distributor owns its water system. There the district reviews the plans and gives the engineer Denver Water's Distributor Conditional Water Plan Approval form, and Denver Water returns comments to both the engineer and the district. Tell the distributor about any pre-design meeting, and expect both to approve tap applications (section 2.06).

What training does Denver Water require before you submit?

Every individual who submits plans has to complete Denver Water's computer-based training and pass its quiz with 80% or better. It has applied to new projects since January 1, 2023.

You sign up through the Denver Water Plan Review Portal. The rules that affect staffing:

• Both the engineer whose PE seal is on the plans and the submitter must be on the approved list.
• Approval goes to individuals, not firms, so plan who will submit.
• Retakes are unlimited. No renewal schedule is set yet, but major changes to the process or standards may trigger a refresher.
• Irrigation reviews, distributor capital improvement projects and conduit projects are exempt.

Denver Water says the training is meant to teach common errors on plan submittals. When an MES engineer took it, most quiz answers were in the Engineering Standards, CAD Standards and construction standards, so keep them open.

Which Denver Water standards govern the design?

The Engineering Standards, 17th Edition, effective May 28, 2026, and the CAD Standards effective June 2026. Materials and installation follow the Capital Projects Construction Standards (CPCS) specifications and details.

Plans must be prepared, stamped and signed by a PE licensed in Colorado. CAD files must meet Denver Water's CAD Standards External Requirements, and Denver Water says any deviation will result in plan rejection. It accepts a current AutoCAD DWG file with a PDF of the final plot. Where the Engineering Standards conflict with a referenced standard, the most stringent requirement applies (section 1.05). Check any details reused from an older plan set against the 2026 editions.

What does Denver Water check in a water main design?

Main size, head loss, fire flow, pressure and looping. Chapter 5 of the Engineering Standards sets the numbers.

• New mains are 6, 8 or 12 inches, as Denver Water determines (section 5.03).
• Head loss is limited to 2 feet per 1,000 feet at maximum hour flow, with a C-value of 130, outside fire flow.
• Fire sizing uses maximum day flow plus needed fire flow, with at least 20 psi residual.
• No dead-end mains in the integrated system; cul-de-sacs are evaluated case by case.
• Pressure is at least 40 psi at maximum hour, no more than 110 psi static, with no more than a 30 psi swing between maximum and minimum hour (section 5.06).
• The fire department sets hydrant number and location (section 5.04).

One rule surprises multifamily and mixed-use sites: Denver Water checks their site fire flows with one side of the loop out of service. Run your fire flow analysis for the distribution system that way before the first submittal.

How does the Denver Water plan review process run?

An optional pre-design meeting, then four steps: pre-submittal, formal submittal, resubmittals and final approval. All of it runs through the Plan Review Portal, required for new requests since November 27, 2023.

The steps follow Denver Water's step-by-step water plan submittal process:

1. Pre-design layout (optional). Meet the fire department on access, hydrants and site fire flow, then meet the Plan Review Coordinator (PRC) for points of connection, main sizes and easement needs.
2. Pre-submittal review. Denver Water requires the fire department meeting before this step. Upload the AutoCAD layout, a layered multi-sheet PDF and the legal description on the cover sheet. The PRC sends the review fee estimate.
3. Formal submittal. A comment response letter, CAD and layered PDF, a PDF stamped by the fire authority and the PE, a connection demand form for each fire line, a fixture count worksheet for each domestic tap, and any easement package.
4. Resubmittals. Each round needs a response letter addressing every redline comment and a new AutoCAD drawing.
5. Final approval. The PRC lists the outstanding items, such as the signed compliance agreement, inspection fees and recorded easements.

Count your rounds. Plans that need more than two formal submittals are charged additional review fees, so catch problems at pre-submittal. If you are still deciding whether a site works, the pre-design meeting answers the water questions a site feasibility study needs.

How long does a Denver Water plan approval last?

One year. Construction has to start within a year of approval and cannot stop for more than a year, or the plans go back for review.

Plans sitting in review with no activity for a year are canceled and resubmitted as a new project (section 2.04). Approval also has limits: it means only that the plans appear to meet Denver Water's minimum requirements based on the PE's information (section 2.05).

Is your project ready for its first Denver Water submittal?

It is if you can answer yes to every item below.

1. Have you confirmed it needs a plan review, not only Tap Sales?
2. Do you know whether the site is in Denver, a Total Service area or a distributor area?
3. Has the fire department weighed in on hydrants and site fire flow?
4. Are the sealing Colorado PE and the submitter both on the approved list?
5. Are the CAD files built to the June 2026 CAD Standards?
6. Does the design meet the 17th Edition criteria for size, head loss, pressure and looping?
7. Are the demand forms, fixture worksheets and easement package ready?

Pass rule: every answer is yes before you upload. Then ask your engineer where the point of connection is, whether the site loops, and which item could force a third submittal.

Scope note: this summarizes Denver Water documents posted as of October 2026. Denver Water's reviewers interpret them for each project, and nothing here predicts a review outcome or a schedule.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Denver Water plan review for a 2-inch tap?

Not if the project has only 2-inch and smaller taps, no fire hydrant and no fire line larger than 2 inches. Tap Sales reviews the site plan instead.

What score passes the Denver Water plan review quiz?

80% or better, with unlimited retakes.

Does Denver Water approval mean the system will perform?

No. Section 2.05 says Denver Water makes no warranty that the system will perform any function.

I'm developing a small multifamily building in Denver that needs a 4-inch fire line and one new hydrant. Do I go through Tap Sales or a full plan review?

A full plan review. A hydrant or a fire line 3 inches or larger triggers it. Expect a connection demand form for the fire line, a fixture count worksheet for each domestic tap and a fire flow check with one side of the loop out of service.

I'm a civil engineer who passed Denver Water's training at my last firm and just started at a new one. Do I have to take the quiz again before I submit?

No. Denver Water says the assessment does not need to be retaken. Email your updated information to its plan review team.

Related resources

• Denver Site Development Review Process
• Storm and Sanitary Sewer Permitting for Colorado Developments
• Adams County Project Review Process
• 3 Things You Should Know About Colorado Water and Sewers Providers

Getting a project ready for Denver Water plan review?

Fewer review rounds start with the right track, the current standards and a design that already passes the fire flow check. MES is licensed in Colorado, has an office in Golden, and prepares water main and site civil plans for reviews like this one.

We specialize in water main extension design, fire flow analysis and water system modeling, site civil engineering for land development, site feasibility and due diligence, and construction administration.

Modern Engineering Solutions, McKinney, Texas. Contact: (214) 833-6748 or mod-eng.com