About Lake Loveland

With regards to Lake Loveland Reservoir

                Information on the history, ownership and management of the reservoir is the best place to start. The owners of the water stored in the Lake Loveland Reservoir also own the reservoir. The Greeley Loveland Irrigation Company (GLIC) manages the reservoir. GLIC was formed in 1900 but construction of the irrigation system that GLIC owns and manages began in the 1860s. Lake Loveland Reservoir is one of the reservoirs that are integral parts of the GLIC system. The reservoir was constructed in the 1890s by the installation of a dam to allow the storage of water. The reservoir stores water for the owners until they need it for irrigation or other uses.  Among the other uses is municipal use for Greeley and Evans who are part owners of the reservoir. Generally, storage reservoirs begin to fill on November 1st each year. Lake Loveland Reservoir’s decree is #9 on the Big Thompson River which means the eight more senior reservoirs must fill before Lake Loveland Reservoir. The storage water right for Lake Loveland Reservoir only allows the reservoir to fill once a year and will not allow “re-fill” after the reservoir has filled. Typically, Lake Loveland Reservoir fills in April/May. GLIC begins to deliver water to water users in June and depending on the demand, the Company will use river water and stored water to meet this demand. When needed, GLIC must draw water from all of its reservoirs including Lake Loveland Reservoir to meet the requests from water users. These users own the water and have the right to call for their water and GLIC is required to deliver the requested amount. As the summer progress, the water in Lake Loveland Reservoir will continue to decrease until the irrigation season is over at the end of October. Generally, at the end of the irrigation season Lake Loveland would be around 40% full because of the usage of water during the summer. The next part is the most important piece that has changed the landscape over the last few years.

During the mid-1980s, GLIC and the City of Greeley entered into an agreement that allowed the City of Greeley to store 5,000 acre feet of Colorado Big Thompson (CBT) water in Lake Loveland Reservoir.  Each acre foot is the equivalent to a foot of water covering one acre and is 325,851 gallons. The 5,000 acre feet was stored in September and October. The capacity of Lake Loveland is 12,736 acre feet so the 5,000 acre feet guaranteed that the reservoir was at least 40% full but generally there was some water left over at the end of the irrigation season, so often the reservoir capacity through the winter was 80-90% of full.

In 2018, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, the owner of the CBT Project, enacted a rule that CBT cannot be stored if there is no release and use of that water in the year that it is delivered. This resulted in the City of Greeley not being able to bring the 5,000 acre feet into Lake Loveland Reservoir because that amount of water cannot be used in that same year. Since 2018, Greeley has brought in CBT water to the GLIC system in much smaller amounts because it only stores as much as is needed that year. As a result, the water level in Lake Loveland Reservoir is much lower in the winter.  

Sincerely,

Daniel Kammerzell

GLIC General Manager