H2O Talk: Water - Environment - Society
Science:Earth Sciences
This week the Two Toms will discuss some recent water news followed by a discussion of building a dam with their guest Greg Dewey, an engineer with the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, also known as Northern Water. Greg has been involved in the permitting process to construct a new dam and reservoir that will augment the District's supply. Greg's description of his experience in this process brings to light the complexity of planning and building such a project.
Some history:
"In 1937, the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District was created to jointly operate and maintain the federally-owned Colorado-Big Thompson Project, with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The C-BT Project collects supplemental water west of the Continental Divide for delivery to approximately 1,021,000 people and 615,000 irrigated acres in Northeastern Colorado for agricultural, municipal, domestic and industrial purposes.
In addition to the original C-BT infrastructure, Northern Water has worked cooperatively with local water users and municipalities to create water activity enterprises to finance and build additional water infrastructure, including the Southern Water Supply Project and the Pleasant Valley Pipeline. The Northern Integrated Supply Project is in the design and permitting phase.
In 1970, Northern Water’s Municipal Subdistrict was created by six Front Range municipalities to build the Windy Gap Project. The Subdistrict constructed the Windy Gap Pump Plant in 1985 and is currently constructing Chimney Hollow Reservoir near Loveland, the main component of the Windy Gap Firming Project.
While current and future projects drive day-to-day operations, Northern Water also provides regional leadership through water efficiency programs, data collection and delivery, source water protection and interagency cooperation." (Northern Water, 2023)
Source:
Northern Water. (2023). Delivering water to northeastern Colorado. Retrieved from: https://www.northernwater.org/
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