FROM THE ARCHIVES: Willow Creek Pump Plant Approved

Seventy-five years ago this month, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, with encouragement from the Northern Water Board of Directors, made an addition to the Colorado-Big Thompson Project that has helped to make the project’s flows more consistent from year to year.

The Willow Creek Pump Plant, located on County Road 40 near Northern Water’s Willow Creek Campus, was approved in June 1950 to ensure water from Willow Creek would be added to the C-BT Project water stored at Lake Granby.

Senate Document 80 had originally called for a diversion structure on Willow Creek that would deliver water by gravity to Lake Granby. After further work by engineers from the Bureau of Reclamation and with encouragement from Northern Water’s leadership, an agreement was signed in 1950 for the final component of the West Slope Collections System. Today the Willow Creek portion of the C-BT Project increases the project’s long-term yield by 15 percent to 20 percent.