Water Management

The Town of Berthoud is dedicated to providing safe, quality water services to all residents.  The Water Division is responsible for the proper operation of the water treatment plant and distribution system and compliance with Safe Drinking Water Standards, the State and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).  The Town’s raw water system is supplied by the Colorado Big Thompson Project and Big Thompson River water rights are used.  The primary raw water storage is the Berthoud Reservoir north of the Town.

Department responsibilities

  • Maintain and replace all Town water mains
  • Valve control
  • Leak Detection
  • Water quality
  • System flushing
  • Operate and maintain raw water supply
  • Clean and maintain water storage facilities
  • Water line locates and inspections
  • Water meter readings and testing
  • Customer Service
  1. Water Treatment Plant

For the last few years Berthoud has been expanding the water treatment plant to better serve residents and to be independent of the larger surrounding communities with our water needs. Now that expansion is complete, here are some facts about what was added. Click to view the inside of our water treatment plant.

Coagulation and Flocculation Basins

This is the first of the treatment processes. Raw water is first treated with a polymer-based coagulant, rapidly mixed and then flows into a series of flocculation basins. The gentle mixing action in the flocculation basins helps to create collision and adhesion of small particles into larger particles which can then settle in the next process: sedimentation.

Sedimentation Basins

Once the water has spent time in the flocculation basins, it flows to the settling basin to give time for the particles to separate from the clean water. During the expansion at the water plant, two settling tanks were added to the water treatment plant to increase capacity from 2.0 million gallons per day to 4.0 million gallons per day.

Additional Water Filters

The final step is to send the settled water collected from the sedimentation basin to the multi-media gravity filters. This is the final physical process the water will go through inside the water treatment plant before it is sent out to Berthoud's resident's homes. During the expansion, two additional filters were added. Each filter has a capacity of filtering 1.0 million gallons of water each day.

Water Tower PaintedWater Treatment Plant blending tankWater treatment plant pipes


  1. Water Quality Reports