Grand County and Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (Northern Water) have agreed to a unique and first-of-its-kind Operational Framework that provides Grand County with the ability to have as much as 7,000 acre-feet of additional controllable water to release from the Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) Project for stream enhancement and other purposes that will benefit Grand County’s recreation and agriculture industries. The volume available for streamflow improvement will be dependent on annual river conditions and C-BT Project storage levels.

Approved Tuesday by the Grand County Commissioners, the agreement outlines a methodology to determine the water that will be available to the County each year. Water made available under this agreement to the County will be released to Willow Creek, or to the Colorado River, will supplement existing flows, and could accumulate to nearly 40,000 acre-feet over the course of a decade. Prior to 2005, this water was used for irrigation of hay fields near the Town of Granby. Since that time, the underlying lands have been removed from agricultural production and converted to residential and commercial development. Without this agreement, the water will continue to be captured by the C-BT Project and available to Northern Water for uses in Northeastern Colorado.