Metro Minutes from 5-10-06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Colorado Water for the 21st Century Metro Roundtable - Meeting Minutes May 10, 2006 Parker Water & Sanitation District Parker, Colorado 4:00 - 6:45 PM Chairman Doug Scott chaired the meeting. The minutes for the April 12 meeting were approved. David Little gave a presentation on Denver Water's Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The IRP was originally completed in 1997, but it is now being updated, with a new version to be complete in 2007. Denver Water is considering the possible inclusion of a "climate change" scenario in its planning figures, assuming a moderate scenario of climate change of 20F. Under this scenario, precipitation might decrease by 3%, reducing Denver's safe yield by 12% or 45,000 acre-feet. Higher temperatures could cause lawn irrigation requirements would increase by 15%, resulting in an increase in municipal water demand of 6% or 23,000 acre-feet. Frank Jaeger described the concept of rotational crop management for water rights that are acquired for municipal use. This is an agreement concept that could be used with a number of agricultural users to provide for the scheduled rotation of irrigated lands so that the water not needed on the fallowed lands can be used for other purposes. Perhaps 100 acres out of 500 acres would be fallowed and used for municipal use on a rotational basis. House Bill1124 was recently approved by the legislature concerning the rotational crop management concept. There was a general discussion of concepts for future steps in the Metro Roundtable and IBCC decision process. Eric Hecox suggested that a "needs assessment" should be conducted. This might be conducted along the concept of a regional Integrated Resource Plan. He also said that funding for water resources planning might make use of funds recently appropriated by the legislature. $1,200,000 was appropriated in HB-1400 for roundtable process and supporting investigations. In SB-179, $10,000,000 per year for four years was appropriated for construction and studies. This money will be administered by the Colorado Water Conservation Board. Criteria and guidelines will be developed by the CWCB in cooperation with the IBCC. A sub-committee was formed to consolidate the Metro "needs assessment" data. The committee includes Mark Kolebar, Bill Ray, John Hendrick, Frank Jaeger, and a Denver representative. They will work with Eric Hecox and Rick Brown to compile this data. Prepared by: Gary Thompson, June 10, 2006 Page I of 1