Longmont’s water supplies should be more than adequate to handle a calendar full of warm and dry months. City officials warn that conditions could change to alter the whole water picture.
The city council this week accepted Longmont’s 2022/2023 Water Supply & Drought Management Plan, which oversees the city’s water supply and anticipates, identifies and responds to drought in the St. Vrain Creek watershed, according to a staff report.
In all, it is expected that Longmont will have sufficient potable municipal water supplies for 2022 and 2023 to meet the demands of customers, the report states.
Longmont’s has a long-standing record of securing better than adequate water diversion agreements for local reservoirs, Wes Lowrie, Longmont’s Power Works and Natural Resources, told the council.
“We now have a very strong water rights portfolio,” Lowrie said.
Longmont’s water supply is at 141% of projected demand and that the snow pack, stream flow and water storage for the St. Vrain Basin is near average, Lowrie said.
One of the biggest sources of Longmont’s water is the Colorado Big Thompson River project, he said. “We have a lot of water available to us because of that,” Lowrie said.
“Longmont has been prudent in how it has provisioned itself with water,” Councilor Marcia Martin, said. “We have plenty of water … that is the bottom line here.”
Lowrie said several factors could cut into Longmont’s water supply including a hike in consumer demand and a significant reduction in summer rain. He added Longmont typically gets about one-and-a-half inches of rain per month in the summer.
“If we don’t get that kind of rain, that could have an impact,” he said.
Disruptive events like huge wildfires could also suck the city’s water supply to low levels. “Any one of those things could throw us off,” Lowrie said.
