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Drought Causes Horsetooth Water Levels to Plummet

Steven Bratman
/
Flickr – Creative Commons

Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins is dropping by about a foot a day.

The water is being diverted to help area farmers irrigate their crops through the fall and to residences, who are using more water than normal this season because of the drought.  If the current need keeps up Horsetooth could drop another 30 feet before it levels off.

Brian Werner, a spokesperson for Northern Water says the 2012 wildfires slightly impacted Horsetooth because farmers turned to reservoir water earlier in the year then they normally would to avoid ash in the Poudre River.

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