Colorado-Big Thompson system sets storage record

BERTHOUD — Yes, Northern Colorado experienced heavy snowfall last winter in the mountains above the Front Range and, yes, the area also experienced a wet spring.

It’s been so wet, in fact, that the storage reservoirs of the Colorado-Big Thompson project set a record for storage, and the project released additional water down the Colorado River to help fill reservoirs to the west.

The Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District said in a recent newsletter that some areas of the Northern Water region saw its wettest May and June since records began in the 1890s.

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The C-BT project and its reservoirs began operations 66 years ago.

“In July, the primary storage reservoirs in the project — Lake Granby, Horsetooth and Carter — were storing more than 800,000 acre feet of water. The month has joined July 2017 and July 2019 as times when the 800,000-acre-foot level has been reached. … The highest daily total for the C-BT Project occurred July 10, when 803,291 acre feet of water was in storage, surpassing the previous record set on July 14, 2019, by 769 acre feet,” Northern Water wrote.

Because there was no more room to store, “more than 60,000 acre feet of water was released from Lake Granby and Willow Creek Reservoir above the normal required releases to flow downstream in the Colorado River.”  

The organization in April set the quota for this year’s water delivery at 70%, which means that an owner of one share, or one acre foot, will have access to 7/10 of the share. The C-BT can deliver up to 310,000 acre feet of water.

In a somewhat counterintuitive sense, in wet years when water is available, the district will deliver less than 100% with the remainder stored for use in dry years.