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00628 THE COUNCIL BELIEVES that the pleasant environment provided by grass, flowers, shrubs and trees will become more appreciated as the higher cost of energy for traveling makes recreation close to home more necessary, especially for low and moderate income families, Rather than buying large amounts of energy for pumping and treatment required by other alternatives, the generation of all energy required by the Foothills treatment facilities and production of a small surplus for use elsewhere is a positive contribution to solving our energy problem, THE COUNC1L BELIEVES that the wages from construction jobs and other expenditures in the Denver area will help solve the unemployment problem and maintain a stable economy over the next several years, In addition, availability of additional treated water from the Foothills facilities will provide some permanent and long-term jobs in other segments of the economy, 1ncreases in construction costs of $700,000 per month due to escalation is an unnecessary burden on the economy. Water Is Short The metropolitan Denver area has been short of water at least during the entire twentieth century, but farsighted people have provided storage, diver- sion and irrigation facilities to assure that water is saved and made available where needed, 1n the 1930's and 1950's, though facilities were being built, water was short, and the situation was exacerbated by a drought, History is repeating itself in the late 1970's, except that needed facilities are not under construction, and there is no assurance that the Foothills water treatment plant will be built because of environmental concerns. If the plant is not built, people in the Denver area may suffer with a perpetual droughtlike situa. tion, regardless of natural precipitation, The major, ity of our water, even in normal times, is available in a short runoff period each year, and it must be captured and saved for later treatment and use, If the water cannot be treated because the facilities are not there, the water simply will run down. stream to Nebraska or southwestern states, The Denver Water Board estimated, quite accu- rately as it turn,ed out, that it would need added treatment capacity in the summer of 1977, The first 125 million gallons per day (MGD) phase of an ultimate capacity of 500 (MGD) of the Foothills Plant was therefore scheduled for completion this summer, Because the new plant is not ready, how- ever, most people in the area are experiencing water shortages reflected in a restrictive irrigation sched. ule, and pleas for water conservation in every possible way, The current drought, and the possibility that it will extend for several years, makes the message even clearer that, until we have adequate facilities for both storage and treatment, water shortages will Pictured above is the Strontia Springs Diversion Dam and Reservoir which is a vital part of the Foothills project, The arrows point to the general vicinity of the federally-owned land, Involvement of about 38 acres of this land required the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement. be a fact of life, Thus, the current restrictions serve, first, to level out or prevent possible shortages caused by lack of treatment capacity during peak use periods by keeping reserves of treated water at capacity even though Foothills is not available,and, second, as a prudent safeguard against using up untreated water in storage in Dillon and other res- ervoirs, resulting in a lack of reserves should the drought continue next year or longer, 1mmediate Action is Needed This year, 1977, we are experiencing irrigation restrictions which level out the water shortage throughout the summer, Without this sensible man, agement approach, we would experience a number of days with a severe shortage, It is estimated that in the summer of 1980, only 3 years away, without irrigation restrictions, we would have less water July 1977 - COG notations - Paie 3