Water is Infrastructure
From Source to “Tap” Tracing the path of water from Colorado’s High Country to a batch of its microbrew It all starts here. Colorado’s rivers begin high in the mountains and are fueled by melting snow. u
Rivers like the Colorado are important for fish, wildlife and recreationbased economies, so state and federal agencies put protections in place to keep adequate water in streams.
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Below Rocky Mountain National Park, a 13-mile tunnel moves water from the Colorado River underneath the Continental Divide. This is the ColoradoBig Thompson (C-BT) Project. w
Horsetooth Reservoir is a recreational hotspot for Ft. Collins’ boaters, hikers and climbers. It also stores water for Ft. Collins and Greeley.
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Northern Water monitors x snowpack, stream conditions and reservoir levels and, in cooperation with the Bureau of Reclamation, controls the flow of water through the C-BT system remotely from Berthoud.
This transmountain diversion was originally built for farmers, to supplement their water supply for irrigation. Now that the area has grown, farmers own roughly one-third of the water shares from the project and cities own the rest.
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Colorado Foundation for Water Education
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