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14 PBESENTATION BY ROBERT H. MADSEff Thank you Mr. Greer., Before I attempt to generally outline the procedures of our studies, I would like to express the appreci- ation'of our office for all the help we have received from numerous organizations, businesses, and individuals Some of which are represented here today. ' The State of Colorado has furnished $125,000 toward these studies and ve have had the valuable help of the Colorado Water Conservation Board and their technicians. The DenvertWater Board fUrnished information on municipal water supply, return flows and other' data. The Inter-CoUnty Re'gional Planning Commission furnished population projections. The REA's and public power companies fur- nished well pumping data for our underground: water studies. The State Engineer furnished the basic data on water diversion and stream flow. I wish to take this opportunity to thank all of them. It is a fine example of real cooperation among all agencies engaged in studying the South Platte Valley's water resource potential~. In most river basins increasing'demands on the water supply deplete the basin supply. In the South Platte River basin} trans- mountain diversion to meet municipal demands are tending to increase the basin supply. Return flows from this municipal use will increase the basin supply below ,the municipalities., The increase will be gradual as determined by municipal growth.' The Denver Metropolitan Area is one of the fastest growing urban areas in the United States. The rapidity of growth has changed the land use pattern of large blocks of land from rural, to urban development. A characteristic of large scale} rapid urban development is that the demands for municipal 'and industrial water exceed locally-available supplies. Thus} Denver, like many large cities, has had to develop a source some distance away. In Denver's case, water has been imported from the Western Slope. The additional trans mountain diversions to be made 'in the future 'will cause increased return flows which affect our studies in two ways: (1) the aMi tional water supply will partially satis:f'y the needs of irrigators in the basin without a project, and (2) use of the additional water supply in the upper part of the basin will tend to move the need for reservoir storage downstream. Thus} the site for the best reservoir in the basin will shift as time goes by. Because of th:t's situation, studies were made to show water supply conditions in the basin for three separate periods in time-- historic, i~termediate and ultimate. The purpose of our historic studies was threefold: (1) to determine the need for a Federal project, (2) to establish a base for making predictions of future conditions, and (3) to obtain background 1nforrnation on the hydrology of the basin.