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OG82 Background and Summary-Preferred Storage Options Plan Project Purpose and Need-The current population of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District's nine-county service area is 620,000. That number is expected to increase to over 1.5 million by the year 2040. In an effort to prepare for the water needs of the growing population in the Arkansas River basin and to help sustain water supplies for agricultural use, the PSOP establishes a strategy for the effective management of existing storage and the development of additional water storage capacity. The need for additional water storage capacity to meet the needs of agricultural and municipal water users in the nine-county service area of the Southeastern District was fust documented in the December 1998 Water and Storage Needs Assessment Report. That report, using population growth projections and an agricultural use baseline to establish a year 2040 demand, indicates that municipal water providers need 107,100 acre-feet of additional storage to meet their water needs into the year 2040 and agricultural water users need 66,000 acre-feet of firm storage to help sustain the Winter Water Storage Program supplies and provide for the storage of replacement water for well augmentation. The total storage demand was determined to be 173,100 acre-feet. The Preferred Storage Options Plan Report (PSOP), initiated in the spring of '99, then analyzed the various alternatives to address the documented need for storage. The 173,100 acre-foot storage demand was then modified in the Preferred Storage Options Plan to 122, I 00 acre-feet. This change results from a reduction in the storage for agricultural needs, which was determined to be an appropriate step because there was not the fmancial means among the agricultural water users to develop the full 66,000 acre-foot additional storage capacity. District Water Management Storage-As an alternative to firm storage capacity developed for the Winter Water Storage Program and replacement water supplies, the PSOP would develop "District Water Management Storage" (DWMS) as a part of the proposed enlargement project at Pueblo Reservoir. The DWMS would be used to store a portion of Winter Water that is subject to spill at Pueblo Reservoir and provide for additional temporary storage for agricultural and municipal water providers, and to help facilitate a water banking program in the Arkansas Valley. (The Implementation Committee Report refers to the District Water Management Storage as "Enterprise Water Management Storage" (EWMS) in recognition that the District's Water Activity Enterprise will manage the storage space.) I