PROJC02293 ‎(2)‎

• Contract/PO #: C150281
• Contractor Name: Water Supply and Storage Company
• Contract Type: Loan
• Water District: 0
• County: Larimer
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Feasibility Study

Hydrology and Water Rights
The Company collects, diverts and delivers about 55,500 acre-feet of water annually from three principal
sources. Those sources are (1) direct flow rights in the Cache la Poudre River and two trans-mountain
diversions. The first transmountain diversion is from the headwaters of the Colorado River in the
Kawuneeche Valley of Rocky Mountain National Park via the Grand River Ditch over the Continental
Divide at La Poudre Pass and the second from the headwaters of the Laramie River via the Rawah Ditch
(through the Laramie-Poudre Tunnel }and Skyline Ditch which diverts directly into Chambers Lake. The
Laramie River is a tributary to the North Platte at its headwaters in Wyoming.
All water diverted from outside the Cache La Poudre basin flows either into Long Draw Reservoir or
Chambers lake, and then into the Cache La Poudre River. All waters taken by the Company for
distribution to its shareholders is taken out about 50 miles downstream through its head gate on the
Cache La Poudre River just south of Ted's Place. That head gate is the upper end of the Company's main
distribution canal, the Larimer County Canal. Through that head gate the Company also draws
exchanged flows and C-BT share water it owns, from Horsetooth Reservoir or the other reservoirs
upstream on the Cache La Poudre owned by either the Cities of Fort Collins or Greeley.
Water is distributed to shareholders based upon a schedule set by the Company's Board of Directors.
Deliveries are usually made 4 or 5 days per week from about mid-May through the first week of
September. The schedule is variable, depending on water supplies and the frequency and sufficiency of
natural rainfall over the service area. The Company's ditch riders open, adjust and monitor head gates
serving individual farms or laterals on the system.
Water volumes collected and distributed are measured and monitored by the State Engineer at the
transmountain diversion points at La Poudre Pass on the Grand River Ditch and at the mouth of the
Laramie-Poudre Tunnel, at the outlets of all the reservoirs and also at the main head gate of the Larimer
County Canal on the river. The Company has Parshall flumes installed at all the individual farm and
lateral head gates on the distribution system for measuring flows distributed to shareholders.
The Company stores very little water over the winter season, as the system is short of capacity
compared to shareholder demands in all but the wettest years.
A summary of water and storage rights are included in Appendix B. In addition, the Company owns 2087
shares of C-BT .
WSSC-GRD at Windy Pt & Kluver/Travis Rd Projects 7
December 2008