Fort Collins-Loveland, ELCO water districts experiencing 'emergency' at main plant

Update: As of 7 p.m. water service has been restored .

Fort Collins-Loveland Water District and East Larimer County Water District customers are being asked to pause all nonessential water usage due to an emergency at its main water treatment plant.

The main water treatment plant for Fort Collins-Loveland and ELCO water districts, Soldier Canyon Filter Plant , "has had an emergency," according to an alert sent to customers and posted to the districts' websites just before 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Update: Here's what caused shutdown of Fort Collins water treatment plant Tuesday

The plant also provides water for the North Weld County Water District, and those customers are also impacted.

Because of the emergency, Fort Collins-Loveland and ELCO water district customers should anticipate a dramatic decrease in water pressure and availability of water for 8 to 12 hours, according to the alert.

Customers are being asked to turn off all nonessential water use and outside irrigation until further notice.

Fort Collins Utilities customers are not impacted by this emergency as of 3:30 p.m., though staff are monitoring the city's system closely, Utilities spokesperson Honora Thompson said in an email to the Coloradoan. To help the impacted water districts, Fort Collins Utilities began sending water to Fort Collins-Loveland Water about 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

It is unclear what the nature of the emergency is.

There are no anticipated impacts to water quality, Fort Collins-Loveland Water District said in a comment on their Facebook post.

Customers can check for updates on the Fort Collins-Loveland Water District Facebook page or the districts' websites.

Fort Collins-Loveland Water District serves more than 60,000 customers, according to its website , and gets about 10% of its water from the Poudre River and 90% from the Colorado-Big Thompson River Project.

The district serves approximately 60 square miles in south Fort Collins, north Loveland, and parts of Timanth, Windsor and unincorporated Larimer County.

East Larimer County Water District serves north and east of Fort Collins, and it gets about 70% of its water from the Colorado-Big Thompson River Project and 30% from the Poudre River.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins-Loveland, ELCO water districts experiencing 'emergency' at main plant