Weld County, CO Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)
Key Facts
- Rule
- Graywater treatment systems banned outright
- Citation
- Weld County Code § 2-3-30
- Adopted by
- Ordinance 2025-02
- Coverage
- Unincorporated Weld County only
- State framework
- Graywater use is county opt-in, C.R.S. 30-11-107(1)(kk)
- Permit path
- None; no exception or grandfather clause
Summary
Weld County bans the installation of any graywater treatment system on land or in structures anywhere in the unincorporated area. Ordinance 2025-02, codified at Code § 2-3-30, forecloses the household water-recycling option some Colorado counties allow under the state's opt-in graywater law. No permit exists for one; installing it is unlawful outright.
The installation of graywater treatment systems on lands and in structures located in unincorporated areas of Weld County is prohibited.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Charter and County Code: Supplement 95).
Full Breakdown
" The prohibition applies only within the unincorporated area of the county; it does not reach incorporated cities and towns such as Greeley, Fort Lupton, Windsor, or Erie, each of which sets its own graywater policy under its own municipal code. Colorado's graywater statute, enacted in 2013, does not legalize graywater reuse across the state automatically. § 30-11-107(1)(kk), a county has to affirmatively adopt its own ordinance or resolution establishing a graywater control program meeting the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Regulation 86 before residents there may legally install a graywater treatment system for laundry-to-landscape irrigation or similar nondrinking reuse.
Weld County took the opposite path: rather than opting in, the Board of County Commissioners enacted a standing countywide prohibition, so no lawful graywater installation exists anywhere in unincorporated Weld regardless of lot size, water source, or septic status. The ban's wording covers "lands and structures," reaching both indoor treatment works and any outdoor graywater distribution system, not merely interior plumbing fixtures. Section 2-3-30 carries no exception, no permit process, and no grandfather clause for systems installed before the 2025 ordinance took effect, so an existing installation in the unincorporated county is not shielded from the prohibition.
Violations & Fines
Section 2-3-30 creates a flat, unqualified prohibition rather than a permit-and-fine scheme: no building or plumbing permit application for a graywater treatment system can be approved in the unincorporated county, and installing one anyway is unlawful under the Code with no exception written in. The section sets no separate fine schedule of its own; violations fall under the County's general Code enforcement authority for unpermitted work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I install a graywater recycling system on my property in unincorporated Weld County?
Does Colorado state law allow graywater reuse?
Does this ban apply inside Greeley or other towns in Weld County?
What happens if I install a graywater system anyway?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Weld County
Compare Weld County to another location·View the Colorado water use rules overview
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