april 10 South Platte Basin Roundtable Meeting

• Basin Roundtable: South Platte
• Title: Minutes
• Date: 4/10/2007
• Basin Roundtables - Doc Type: Minutes

Ft Collins and Tri-districts and North Poudre Irrigation CO need 25,000 ac
ft of additional yield; preferred alternative: expand Halligan Reservoir
Greeley needs 9000 ac ft; preferred alternative is to expand Milton
Seaman Reservoir
"Firm yield" = amount of water which can be provided during all six years
of the 1 in 50 year critical drought

Current state in NEP A process: identify alternatives to the studies
Record of decision: summer of 2008
Greeley's need: 2028; thus, phasing of project beneficial for Ft Collins
first, then Greeley.
Questions:
Eric Hecox: productive role of roundtable or should roundtable stay out?
Harold Evans: support at time ofEIS hearing; at this point, Greeley and
Ft Collins committed to process;
Tom Iseman: Nature Conservancy working with cities about creative
alternatives; NEP A process means that cities have divulged only limited
access to information.

III. Underground Water Storage Study: Senate Bill 06-193
Colorado Water Conservation Board: Andy Moore
Passed last spring with final report due by 3/1/2007;
--Study of potential underground water storage areas in South Platte and
Arkansas River Basins
--look at alluvial and bedrock aquifers to be evaluated
--Issues not studied: available water supply and water rights; scale of potential
projects; potential legal issues; water treatment requirements; local
stakeholder interest; other site-specific issues.
--sources of info: South Platte Decision Support System; Division of Water
Resources; CGS studies; IBCC basin roundtables; USGS, CO State
University; experts.
Current recharge projects:
South Platte: over 190,000 acft since 2005
Thus, aquifer recharge not new in state; purpose is to jump start process
Evaluation criteria:
--Hydro geologic considerations (available storage capacity, hydro geologic
suitability; residence time); environmental considerations (water quality,
habitat concerns, water logging and non-beneficial consumptive use);
implementation considerations (land ownership and land use, existing
infrastructure, proximity to areas with demand, implementation costs)

Scoring: All areas are worthy of further investigation if interested stakeholders
and sources of water are present;

Conclusions and Recommendations:
--many potential areas for aquifer recharge and underground storage

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