Water Committee Agenda and Packet 2015 04 03

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1 Profile Existing Water System 1.1 Overview and Purpose The City of Louisville (City) is a Colorado municipality covering a service area of 8.50 square miles with an estimated population of 18,771 in 2014 (the population estimated from the 2010 US Census was 18,376). The City, incorporated in 1878, lies in Boulder County roughly 6 miles east of Boulder and 25 miles northwest of Denver. On average the City has 15.5 inches of rain and 275 days of sunshine a year. Mean monthly temperatures range from 29.5 degrees Fahrenheit ( °F) in January to 72 °F in July. At this time, the City owns, either alone or in conjunction with other governmental entities, approximately 1,700 acres of designated open space. The residential size of the City is not likely to grow significantly, with an estimated population of 22,145 at full occupation. There is the potential for significant commercial and industrial growth at three main business centers: Centennial Valley, the Colorado Technology Center, and the Phillips 66 campus. The City has two water treatment facilities with capacity to produce up to 12.1 million gallons per day (mgd) of potable water, potable water storage in the distribution system of 8.5 million gallons, 115 miles of finished water distribution system piping, and 6,784 service taps (as of 2013). The City has a treatment plant to reuse wastewater for irrigation; the treatment capacity of the reuse plant is 2 mgd, although the amount available for reuse varies depending on water rights operations. 1.2 Water Supply and Reliability The City of Louisville obtains the majority of its water supply from South Boulder Creek through direct flow rights, storage rights, and exchanges. The City is also a participant in Northern Water's Colorado -Big Thompson (C -BT) project and the Windy Gap project. The City also obtains water from Boulder Creek through exchanges and has some storage and direct flow rights on Coal Creek. The City maintains water rights for the municipal water system as well as for agricultural uses. South Boulder Creek rights are transferred ditch rights so there is a lot of supply in the spring. Water supply in the winter is primarily from storage in Harper, Louisville, and Marshall Reservoirs. Summer water supply is augmented with C -BT water to meet peak demand. This augmentation is sometimes required due to algal blooms in the Louisville reservoir that cause water quality issues. A summary of storage water rights is provided in Table 1. TABLE 1 City of Louisville Raw Water Storage Summary Storage Volume (acre -feet) Notes Harper Reservoir 715 Louisville Reservoir 210 Marshall Lake (Louisville Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Company [FRICO] share, South Boulder and Coal Creek Storage Water, and Foreign Water) 1,020 to 2,540 Colorado -Big Thompson Storage 1,447 Total raw water storage capacity 3,392 to 4,912 Depending on FRICO share and Marshall WBG071714052946BS0 1 -1