10/14/2026
Last week, we recognized the City of Fort Morgan Water Treatment Plant for 25 years of consistency, and this week, we want to take you on a behind-the-scenes look inside the plant.
Before Fort Morgan’s raw water flows into the reservoir above the water treatment plant, it travels over 56 miles through a gravity-fed transmission line that begins as snowmelt on the West Slope.
Gravity continues to move water into the plant to begin treatment, starting with coagulation. This stage uses an ionic current and coagulants to reduce the naturally occurring negative charge, which helps during the next step, flocculation.
During flocculation, large paddles gently stir the water to combine smaller particles into larger material called floc.
As the water flows through the plant, sedimentation uses gravity to settle larger floc pieces. A plate settler system and weir walls remove smaller particles before water enters the final treatment phase, filtration. Here, water flows through a dual-media filter of anthracite coal, sand, and garnet to remove any remaining particles.
Throughout this process, operators monitor pH levels, turbidity, system performance, and manually test the water to ensure it’s safe.
Once the water is treated and ready for consumption, it is stored in two 3.5-million-gallon tanks before it’s piped through a gravity-fed system to the city.
