Water

Fort Collins Utilities is committed to delivering high-quality drinking water. Our treated drinking water consistently surpasses state and federal standards for purity.

Call 970-221-6700 (24 hours, 7 days a week) to report:

• Water main breaks
• Sewer line problems
• Water quality concerns, including taste or odor issues

Visit this page to learn more about water quality or pressure concerns.

Click the button below to learn about where your drinking water comes from. 

We offer programs and rebates to help you save water and money on your utility bills.

How it Works

When flushing, fire hydrants are opened, increasing the velocity of water moving through the pipes and removing sediments that may affect the water's taste and color. While a loss of water pressure is common, the process doesn't typically interrupt water service. 

Watch the Process!

Flushing Benefits

•  Proactive/essential preventive maintenance program
• Maintains water quality and keeps water fresh
• Removes Sediments that may affect taste and color
• Assessment of distribution system and fire hydrants

Cloudy or Discolored Water

Flushing may cause your water to appear cloudy or discolored for a short time. This water is not harmful, though it may stain laundry. It's also safe to use on plants and landscape. If this occurs:

• wait until the nearby flushing is complete
• Remove faucet aerators or filters
• run the COLD water for 5-10 minutes (usually the water clears within a few minutes, if flushing in the area is complete)

If you notice improvements, continue running the cold water for a few more minutes or until it is clear. If it is not improving, turn off the water, wait 30 minutes and repeat. If it still doesn’t clear, you can call 970-221-6700 to report your concerns.

Discover how Fort Collins Utilities manages and protects our community’s water. From conservation tips and efficiency rebates to long-term City planning, explore programs designed to help you save water, prepare for drought, and support a sustainable future.

Fort Collins Utilities manages water supply and demand through careful research and analysis regarding streamflow, diversions, climate, customer demand and population estimates to ensure a clean, reliable water supply for customers now and into the future.

Utilities supplies water to approximately 75% of residents and businesses within the Fort Collins city limits. The remaining customers are serviced by surrounding water districts, including East Larimer County Water District and Fort Collins-Loveland Water District.

Each year, Utilities typically:

• Delivers an average of around 24,000 acre-feet per year of treated water to customers
• Uses approximately 3,000 acre-feet of raw water to irrigate Fort Collins' parks, golf courses, cemetery, and other green belt areas
• Delivers about 4,500 acre-feet of other raw water obligations

We are committed to providing customers with reliable drinking water of superior quality. Our treated drinking water consistently surpasses state and federal standards for purity.

Our Water Treatment Facility, staffed 24 hours a day by state-certified operators, chemically and physically treats raw (untreated) water to make it safe to drink.

The facility has the ability to treat up to 87 million gallons of water a day.

We maintain: 

• More than 500 miles of water mains (pipelines)
• Approximately 12,700 valves and 3,700 fire hydrants
• Over 35,000 water meters

The quality of our infrastructure and ongoing maintenance and replacement programs are critical to our distribution system. Some of Fort Collins’ pipelines have been in operation for over 100 years and must be upgraded to continue providing safe and reliable water.

Fort Collins Utilities monitors water quality in three areas:

• Source water supply: Upper Cache la Poudre River and Horsetooth Reservoir (where our water comes from)
• Treated drinking water
• Treated water returned to the environment and the Lower Poudre River above and below the water reclamation facilities

Since the late 1980s, Utilities has monitored the water quality of our drinking water sources before they reach the water treatment facility. Water quality monitoring is an important tool to proactively track changes and identify pollution sources. Collecting and accessing data helps the City of Fort Collins meet drinking water treatment goals.

Fort Collins Utilities provides water reclamation services for Fort Collins through two facilities. Together, these facilities have a treatment capacity of 29 million gallons per day. Our advanced operations, leadership and values allow us to return treated water to our community that exceeds public and environmental health regulatory criteria.

The water reclamation facilities, staffed by state-certified operators, use an array of physical, biological and chemical processes to treat wastewater. The facilities discharge to the Cache la Poudre River and Fossil Creek Irrigation Ditch. The removed solids in the treatment process are digested to meet strict state and federal standards for organic and pathogen removal. Generated Class B biosolids are dewatered and applied as a beneficial soil amendment at Meadow Springs Ranch.

Businesses that operate industrial processes are subject to pretreatment regulations and may be required to obtain an industrial discharge permit. 

Our Industrial Pretreatment Program controls the discharge of wastewater pollutants from industrial and commercial sources to:

• Protect the quality of receiving water and biosolids
• Prevent interference with wastewater treatment and infrastructure
• Protect worker health and safety

Other commercial wastewater considerations include:

• Mercury control
• Septic waste disposal
• Grease control
• Fermented beverage waste disposal

Contact the program administrators by emailing industrial_pretreatment@fortcollins.gov.

Fort Collins Utilities is a shareholder in several local ditch and reservoir companies and holds allotment contracts for Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) water delivery. After ensuring we can meet customer water demands and our raw water delivery obligations, there is typically extra water that can be rented. We allocate this through the annual Raw Water Rental Program, typically in the early part of each year. 

Utilities has four sources of rental water: North Poudre Irrigation Company (NPIC), Water Supply and Storage Company (WSSC), Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) and fully consumable supplies.

2026 Program Status

North Poudre Irrigation Company (NPIC) Rental Program Update

• Fort Collins Utilities will rent its NPIC agricultural water supplies and a portion of its Multiple-Use (MU) water supply. NPIC staff will administer rentals and the MU amount will be determined at the end of April.
• Please contact NPIC with rental requests at info@npicwater.com or 970-568-3612.
• Additional MU supply may be available to rent later in the season depending on City demands. 

Water Supply and Storage Company (WSSC) Rental Program Updates

• Utilities will rent a portion of its WSSC shares this year.
• The application window is Feb. 16-28, 2026. Submit your WSSC rental request through the online form by clicking on the link below.
• The WSSC share rental rate for 2026 is $4,550/share. This is 130% of the 2026 WSSC assessment rate of $3,500/share.
• Utilities will allocate available shares to rental requests based on a random number ranking system draw. The draw will take place the first week of March and participants will be informed of results by email shortly after. 

Other Sources

• No C-BT rentals 
• No new leases for fully consumable supplies

Questions?

Contact us at WaterRental@fortcollins.gov or 970-416-2409.