History
The water and power control center for Colorado-Big Thompson Project's reservoirs, power plants, and transmission lines in Wyoming, Colorado, and western Nebraska is at the project headquarters in Loveland, Colorado. This Western Division of the Missouri River Basin is an interconnected system of 15 Reclamation power plants.
The President approved the Secretary of the Interior's finding of feasibility on December 21, 1937.
The Colorado-Big Thompson Project is one of the largest and most complex natural resource developments undertaken by Reclamation. It consists of over 100 structures integrated into a transmountain water diversion system through which multiple benefits are provided to the people. The project spreads over approximately 250 miles in Colorado. It stores, regulates, and diverts water from the Colorado River on the western slope of the Continental Divide to the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. It provides supplemental water for irrigation of about 720,000 acres of land, municipal and industrial use, hydroelectric power, and water-oriented recreation opportunities.
Plan
The power plant takes diversion water delivered from Marys Lake Power Plant and holds it in Lake Estes for the project. A side benefit is the generation of hydroelectric power for the project. Lake Estes, below Estes Power Plant, is formed by Olympus Dam constructed across the Big Thompson River. The afterbay storage in Lake Estes and the forebay storage in Marys Lake enable the Estes Power Plant to meet daily variations in energy demand. The water and power control center for Colorado-Big Thompson Project's reservoirs, power plants, and transmission lines in Wyoming, Colorado, and western Nebraska is at the project headquarters in Loveland, Colorado. This Western Division of the Missouri River Basin is an interconnected system of 15 Reclamation power plants.
