Water Delivery

Getting Water to Greeley

Treated water travels to Greeley's city limits through an extended network of pipes and pumps. The water takes anywhere from 12 hours up to several days to travel from our water treatment plants in Loveland and Bellvue to Greeley.

Greeley’s Water Pipeline System:

• 153 miles of water pipeline
• 107 miles of pipes from Bellvue Water Treatment Plant to Greeley
• 34 miles of pipes from Boyd Lake Water Treatment Plant to Greeley
• Can deliver up to 73 million gallons of water/day

The length of these transmission pipelines can make maintenance challenging, but the city treats water closer to the source to secure the best water quality.
Greeley is currently in the process of building another pipeline called the Bellvue Pipeline.

Learn more about the Bellvue Pipeline

Leak Detection:

The City of Greeley’s Water and Sewer Department takes a proactive approach to conducting leak detection throughout the water distribution system. The leak detection program deploys a three-pronged approach.

• We work with our valve crews and deploy leak detection strategies in areas of the city where pavement is scheduled to be replaced or rehabilitated.
• We monitor for leak detection in areas where main breaks are more likely to occur. We review information daily to locate non-surfacing leaks so they can be fixed before becoming a larger issue.
• We use a grid system to monitor the city’s water lines to detect leaks. The goal is to survey 30 miles of water lines annually.

City Storage and Delivery

Greeley's extensive water storage system holds nearly 52 million gallons of potable water in different areas throughout the city. Four covered reservoirs and one elevated tank store the water.

Greeley’s City Storage and Distribution System:

• Can store 52 million gallons of water
• 4 treated water (storage) reservoirs: 23rd Avenue, Mosier Hill, and Gold Hill Reservoirs (holding from 2 million to 15 million gallons)
• 1 Gold Hill Elevated Tank (water tower holds 2 million gallons)
• 489 miles of pipelines (ranging from 4 to 36 inches in diameter with some over a century old)
• 28,902 water meters
• 3,642 fire hydrants

The distribution pipes range in size from 4-36 inches in diameter. Some are over a century old while others were recently installed. The underground storage reservoirs also vary in size.

• 23rd Avenue—One 15-million-gallon concrete reservoir
• Mosier Hill—One 15-million-gallon concrete reservoir
• Gold Hill has three reservoirs
• One 15-million-gallon underground concrete reservoir
• One 5-million-gallon partially buried concrete reservoir
• One 2-million-gallon concrete and steel water tower

Water Meters:

Greeley was among the first cities on the Front Range to have all accounts fully metered (by 1996) and to use computer technology to read them. All single-family houses and businesses in Greeley must have a water meter, and multi-family units a master meter.

The meters help the city determine how much water is used to bill customers properly. If there is an irregularity in the customer's water usage, the billing department will work with the Meter Shop to investigate and resolve the problem.

Learn More About Installing or Updating Your Meter

Fire Hydrants:

While the Fire Department is one obvious user of them, fire hydrants serve many other important purposes. Greeley's Water and Sewer Department installs and maintains the hydrants, painting about one-third of the fire hydrants each year. In addition to providing water to help put out fires, they are used to:

• Flush and clean water mains
• Flush sewers
• Fill tank trucks for street washing, tree spraying and winter watering
• Temporary water for construction jobs, such as for mixing mortar and settling dust

It is prohibited to paint fire hydrants or place bushes around them. There must be a 4-foot buffer area around hydrants, so they are easy to maintain and find in an emergency.