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<br />Uncertainties such as an energy crisis, economic depressions, spread of the <br /> <br />conservation ethic and subsequent growth control, or food crisis could shift <br /> <br />demands in the various use categories and/or increase or decrease the total <br /> <br />addi tional water requirements. Uncertainties may also play an important role <br /> <br />in determining future water use efficiencies. <br /> <br />URBAN NEEDS <br /> <br />An additional 1,266,000 people in the basin by the year 2000 would mean the <br />conversion of roughly 316,000 acres (1,279 x 106 x m2) to Qrban,use, additional <br />treatment, storage, and distribution facilities for 354,500 acre-feet <br />(437 x 106 x m3) and the consumptive use of l4l,600 acre-feet (175 x 106 x m3) <br /> <br />annually. These figures are based on a hip;h per capita water use rate of <br />250 gallons (.95 m3) per day and a continuation of land use trends between <br />1960 and 1970 in the United States. <br /> <br />ENERGY NEEDS <br /> <br />The energy requirements are necessarily rough because of the difficulty <br /> <br />of disaggregating multi-state and state energy development figures. The <br />additional consumptive use of roughly 73,000 acre-feet (90 x 106 x m3) <br /> <br />annually by the year 2000 in the South Platte River basin does not seem <br /> <br />unreasonable when compared with energy developllent vater figures given in <br /> <br />Table 3 for the year 1990 for the State of Colorado. The 73,000 acre-feet <br /> <br /> <br />(90 x 106 x m3) figure is probably conservative tor energy requirements. <br /> <br />Fig. 5 shows both the location of the basin's irrigated agricultural areas <br /> <br />and the strippable coal resources of the basin. The sizable' amount of <br /> <br />st~ippable coal and the location of the coal under a substantial portion of <br /> <br />the irrigated acres demonstrates the opportunity for conflict between con- <br /> <br />flicting interests and the potential struggle for water rights between <br /> <br />agricultural and energy interests. In many areas, stripping of the coal could <br /> <br />24 <br />