Denver Water was established in 1918. It supplies water to 25% of Colorado’s population (1.4 million people) but draws less than 2% of water used in the state. Its water supply comes from snowmelt in the Rocky Mountains feeding the South Platte and Colorado Rivers. The total watershed area is 4,000 square miles (10,360 km2) and includes 3,000 miles of pipe (4,828 km). Denver Water has approximately 1,100 employees working all over Colorado. On October 25, 2018 at the American Water Summit in Philadelphia, Jim Lochhead, CEO/Manager of Denver Water, accepted the offer of membership into the Leading Utilities of the World network and received a 'Golden Tap' award, recognising the achievement of the highest level of utility service.