FORT COLLINS - The High Park Fire and drought conditions have combined to make this summer a bad one for business at Horsetooth Reservoir.

Water levels are dropping so fast that owners of about 300 boats docked at the Inlet Bay Marina at Horsetooth Reservoir will have to remove their vessels earlier than normal. The marina isn't issuing refunds for spaces, for which it charges an average $2,200 per season.

"We can't get the boats off the water fast enough before the marina hits the ground," marina owner Glen Werth said. "Ten more feet and we're on the ground."

The reservoir was 34 feet below capacity Monday and could drop another 16 feet by the end of August, said Brian Werner, spokesman for the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. Water levels are decreasing from a few inches to a foot daily as farmers and cities draw on their allotments from the Colorado-Big Thompson Project.

Water levels are about 5 percent below average as farmers and cities contend with the ongoing drought, Werner said. The effects of the High Park Fire on the Poudre River also have led the city of Greeley to use more reservoir water than it normally would this time of year.

"The primary purpose is to