Chatfield Storage Reallocation Project
Chatfield Storage Reallocation Project (CSRP) was completed in April 2020 and approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Omaha District to begin storing “wet” water on May 13, 2020. The 1,500-acre reservoir stores 27,000 acre-feet for conservation storage and recreation. It has a flood-control pool of over 350,000-acre feet. With completion of the CSRP environmental mitigation and recreational modification project elements, the reservoir can now store up to an additional 20,600-acre feet of water above the existing 27,000 acre-feet in “wet” years due to excess summer snowmelt and rain from the mountains. That storage assists with water supply for upstream municipal users and downstream agricultural users as well as (when available) for environmental purposes.
The project was implemented by the Chatfield Reservoir Mitigation Company after a 20-year-long study by the USACE Omaha District. The State of Colorado Department of Natural Resources served as the non-federal sponsor with a number of stakeholders partners, including multiple water districts and The Greenway Foundation.
The state and the water users invested $171 million in the CSRP. A portion of that funding resulted in new facilities at Chatfield State Park. Environmental mitigation on site and off site accounted for the rest of the investment. Restoration of Plum Creek within the park has won awards nationwide.
For more information on the completed project, please go to the Chatfield Storage Reallocation Project website: https://chatfieldreallocation.org/.