BOARD00082 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/14/2006
• Description: WSP Section - Colorado River Future Consumptive Use Projections
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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STATE OF COLORADO

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Colorado Water Conservation Board

Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us

MEMORANDUM

Bill Owens
Governor

TO:

Colorado Water Conservation Board Members

Russell George
Executive Director

FROM:

Randy Seaholm ~
Andy Moore
Water Supply Protection Section

Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director

Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director

DATE: November 3, 2006

SUBJECT: Agenda Item 17, January 13-15, 2006 Board Meeting:
Water Supply Protection - Colorado River Future Consumptive Use
Projections

Backeround

. Every 5-years or so each Upper Division State, through the Upper Colorado River
Commission (UCRC), provides estimates of their anticipated future consumptive uses of
Colorado River Basin water. These projections are used by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and
other federal and public entities on a routine basis solely for planning purposes, for studies such
as projecting when to bring on a new water supply or salinity control project, evaluating
reservoir operations, determining likely surpluses and shortages, and for the conduct of Western
Area Power Administration power-rate studies.

Colorado develops its future depletion estimates by first evaluating the trends in the
consumptive use of water over the last several years. This trend analysis is based on the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation's Consumptive Uses and Losses Report's since 1970 and is given the
most weight in projecting uses into the future. We then consider the maximum historic uses and
other factors such as unused capacity in existing projects, reservations of water in certain sub-
basins made as part of a Programmatic Biological Opinion pursuant to a Recovery Program
(60,000 AF for the Yampa, 120,000 AF for the Colorado) and the potential consumptive uses
from potential new uses of water such as oil shale. This process leads to the state's future
consumptive use projections provided to the UCRC. The last revision to the projections was
adopted by the UCRC on December 15, 1999 (Attachment I). The 1999 future depletions table
adopted by the UCRC suggests Colorado and the other Upper Division States consumptive uses
will reach levels comparable to the levels estimated in the draft 2006 Hydrologic Determination
sometime between 2050 and 2060.

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The Upper Division States believe that at least 6.0 million acre-feet of yield is available
to the Upper Division on an average annual basis, exclusive of CRSP evaporation, as found in

Flood Protection. Water Supply Planning and Finance. Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection. Conservation and Drought Planning