Greeley is awash in water projects — from a new pipeline to stormwater construction — designed to make sure the city has the water it needs for decades to come.

The reservoirs and treatment plants that serve the city are currently up to date, according to water authorities, but Greeley is working on developing long-range water supplies.

“We’re working on water supplies for 2050 and 2060 now. … We’re in an area that’s going to have increasing multiple demands on a finite resource,” said Harold Evans, chairman of the Greeley Water & Sewer Board.

“How we manage that is the challenge — not just for Greeley or Fort Collins, but the state.”

While Greeley isn’t participating in the $500 million Northern Irrigated Supply Project (NISP) water storage effort, the city supports the endeavor because of its importance to the Greeley area’s significant agricultural industry. The project is Northern Colorado’s largest water storage project since the Colorado-Big Thompson Project was finished in 1957.

“If we don’t have storage capacity to get us through drought, the most likely place that water comes from