Water is a fundamental part of life, but the history of water in Broomfield and where it comes from is more complex than many may think.

“It’s really hard to tell the story and the history of the West without talking about water development,” said Luke Runyon, a journalist who specializes in covering water in the West. “You can trace so much of our history back to how water has been moved across landscapes and it’s all driven by scarcity.”

Clean water is a luxury often taken for granted, being just a few steps away at any moment for most Americans. But with Broomfield raising water rates by 50% in the new year, some are wondering more about the origins of water in the area.

“As long as water is clean, cheap and abundant, no one is really paying that close attention,” Runyon said. “But when one of those things changes, people will pay attention.”

Broomfield acquires two types of water for the county — pre-treated water that is ready to be distributed, and raw water that goes through Broomfield’s wastewater treatment facility before being doled out. The pre-treated water is purchased through Denver Water, which supplies water to communities across Colorado.

Broomfield purchases a minimum of 4,700 acre-feet and a maximum of 6,500 acre-feet of water from Denver Water each year. An acre-foot is the unit of measurement used for water rights, and corresponds to the amount of water it would take to flood one acre of land to a depth of one foot. The average household uses about half an acre-foot of water per year.

“Denver Water pipes us fully treated, drinkable water,” Broomfield’s former Water Resources Manager Brennan Middleton said. “Our contract with them dates back to 1971 when the city sought out an additional source of supply to support the city’s growth and expansion.”

The rest of Broomfield’s water comes from the Northern Water Conservancy District, and is split between two projects: The Colorado Big Thomson and Windy Gap projects, both of which originate on the Colorado and Fraser rivers along the Western Slope. Water that comes in from those projects is then treated at Broomfield’s wastewater treatment plant before being supplied to residents.

The Colorado Big Thomson project is the largest trans-mountain diversion project in Colorado, and its water is pumped from Lake Granby to Grand Lake and then delivered to the Eastern Slope through a 13-mile tunnel beneath Rocky Mountain National Park.

Of the Windy Gap project’s 480 units of water, Broomfield owns 56 units which produces about 5,600 acre-feet in an average precipitation year. When Lake Granby is full during a wet year, the Windy Gap project has no storage capacity, so the Chimney Hollow Reservoir project was born to create a more robust storage system.

Construction of the large reservoir is currently underway, and will allow for the storage of excess water during wet years that Broomfield and other municipalities can take advantage of during dry periods and peak demand months. Broomfield is the largest shareholder in the project, with $176.4 million dedicated to it.Other projects being used to firm the water supply in Broomfield include the Siena Reservoir, an existing reservoir the city is currently working to connect to the water supply system, the Broomfield Reservoir, which is expected to be completed in 2032, and the large, partially-buried water tanks in northern Broomfield.

“Each project serves its own function and purpose, like supporting growth and development in north Broomfield or expansion of the city’s population,” Middleton said.

The upcoming water rate increases will help chip away at a backlog of maintenance that has been building up for several years in Broomfield. According to county staffers, the sharp increase in fees is necessary to maintain the city and county’s $3.428 billion in water infrastructure, which will continue to decline without maintenance.

The water utility rate increase is expected to cost the average resident nearly $40 per month and will go into effect in January. Broomfield has spent decades having some of the cheapest water on the Front Range, and the increase is expected to align rates with nearby municipalities.

“We’ve created systems to manage water that really gives people the luxury of not having to care about it until something really bad happens,” Runyon said.