ELCO 1996 WCPlan

• Project Type: Water Conservation Plan
• Project Name: East Larimer County Water District Water Conservation Plan
• Title: Water Conservation Plan
• Date: 1/6/1997
• County: Larimer
• Water Conservation - Doc Type: Complete Plan

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Section 2. Inventory

2,1 Source of Supply

ELCO receives treated water from the Soldier Canyon Filter Plant, so named
because of its location at the base of the Soldier Canyon Dam. The Soldier Canyon
Dam is one of four dams constructed west of Fort Collins by the Bureau of
Reclaniation in the 1940s to create Horsetooth Reservoir. The reservoir has a
capacity of 151,000 acre feet with a surface area of approximately 1,890 acres. Water
treated at the Soldier Canyon Filter Plant comes directly out of Horsetooth Reservoir
through an outlet in the abutment of the dam at a depth of 200 feet.

Water ill Horsetooth Reservoir origiDates as snow in the upper reaches of the
Colorado River Basin;' Snowmelt is collected in reservoirs on the western slope and
diverted through a series' of tunnels and canals' for use in northeastern Colorado.
Horsetooth Reservoir is part of the Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project, the
largest transmountain,diversion project in the state~' The C-BT Project is ""
administered by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. The
Conservancy District oversees the delivery of water for agricultural, municipal, and
industrial uses to almost 1.5 million acres of northeastern Colorado.

The District receives its raw water from two suppliers: the Colorado-Big Thompson
(C-Bn Project and the North Poudre Irrigation Company. Water from these two
sources is transferred into Horsetooth Reservoir for delivery to the Soldier Canyon
Filter Plant.

The following chart shows the amount of water available to the District from its two
sources of supply. The chart also shows the total annual demand of ELCQ customers
over the last ten years. The supply and demand of wholesale customers is not shown
in the chart. Wholesale customers retain ownership of their water rights. ELCO
requires that they transfer enough water to supply their annual demands at the
beginning of each year. In years that ELCQ's water rights are not needed to meet
- - - cust.omefdemands,.exGess-supplies-ar.e-rented-t'o-area-farmers lor .irrigation., - - -

ANNUAL SUPPLY vs DEMAND

EXCLUSIVE OF WHOLESALE CUSTOMERS

5,000
4,500
4,000
... 3,500
w 3,000
w
u. 2,500
w
a:: 2,000
u
<I: 1,500
1,000
500
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Il!I Supply
. Demand