CASE CLOSED
Solving water loss mystery saves millions of dollars from going down the drain
By Tawny Quast
In summer 2022 , water resources engineers at the Soldier Canyon Water Treatment Authority in Fort Collins , Colorado , started noticing something alarming : Their water measurements were significantly lower than normal . In fact , during peak flow , their gauges showed a 20 to 30 % water loss . Why this was happening was a mystery .
Water in the western United States is not just a way to quench thirst or keep crops alive , it ’ s a big business worth billions of dollars . In the case of Soldier Canyon , a water loss of 20 % equates to roughly $ 10 to $ 15 million , said Mark Kempton , manager at the Soldier Canyon Water Treatment Authority .
Poudre River in northern Colorado can vary roughly between $ 100,000 and $ 150,000 an acre foot , Kempton said .
Search for source of water loss begins
After noticing the water loss wasn ’ t going away over the course of a few months , the Authority ’ s water resources staff knew something needed to be done to figure out what was causing this to happen . Soldier Canyon hired Ayres to conduct an analysis to figure out how much water they were losing and where the loss originated , Kempton said .
Soldier Canyon gets its water from two sources : Horsetooth Reservoir , west
of the plant , and the Cache la Poudre River . The Poudre River water enters through a tunnel at the base of the foothills north of Fort Collins , running into the Munroe Canal before being funneled through the Pleasant Valley Pipeline , winding 8.5 miles to the treatment plant . Engineers at Soldier Canyon suspected the water loss was coming from the Munroe Canal project site .
Historically , measuring channel flow involved wading into the ditch and using instruments to conduct measurements by hand , which can be time-consuming , dangerous , and inaccurate , said Dylan Armstrong , project manager and water
“ Essentially , if you couldn ’ t fix the loss , you ’ d have to go and buy more water to make up for that loss ,” he said .
That ’ s because water is a commodity , traded on the open market daily in a complicated web of transactions . Those who buy and sell water rights have prices set based on seniority ; the older the water right that an entity owns , the more valuable it is . The cost to Soldier Canyon for water from the Cache la
What ’ s the Soldier Canyon Treatment Authority ?
The Soldier Canyon Water Treatment Authority serves about 100,000 people , including residential , commercial , industrial , and agricultural customers . It provides water to the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District , the North Weld County Water District , and the East Larimer County Water District . Each year , the Authority manages roughly 5,000 acre feet of Poudre water and an additional 20,000 acre feet of Horsetooth Reservoir water .
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