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<br />- ....." , }' 0 <br />~hj .i /t 'i :) <br /> <br />713,000 acre-feet of transbasin diversions in Colorado, New <br /> <br />Mexico and Utah. 63 <br /> <br />However, the projected Upper Basin limits may have <br /> <br />already created somewhat subtle repercussions and they are <br /> <br />virtually certain to produce direct constraints in the <br /> <br />future. As the Westwide study Report on Critical Water <br /> <br />Problems Facinq the Eleven Western states cautioned: <br /> <br />Although the water supply of the river is adequate <br />to meet quantitative needs today and in the years <br />immediately ahead, this does not mean that there <br />are no current problems related to water shortage. <br />To the contrary there are and they are severe. If <br />the Upper Basin states are to develop their <br />resources at a rate commensurate with their <br />expressed aspirations it is a certainty that <br />shortages_will develop within a time frame that <br />directly affects decisions which need to be made <br />today. Most resource development undertakings, be <br />they for agriculture, industry, or other purposes, <br />require an assured water supply for at least 40 <br />years to justify making initial investments. The <br />fact that there is no actual shortage of water <br />today nor will there be on in the immediate future <br />is of little comfort to those interest whose future <br />depends upon an assured water supply for the next <br />40-S0 years.64 <br /> <br />The Interior Department's Report on W~ter for Energy in the <br />Upper Colorado River Basin projected that before the year <br />2000 a 5.8 m.a.f. per annum limit would curtail some Upper <br /> <br />Basin water uses.65 That study assumed a level of water use <br /> <br />by the energy/industry which will apparently not be <br />realized. But the Westwide study, based on varying sets of <br /> <br />assumptions about the intensity of water use, also concluded <br /> <br />that the Upper Basin would face restrictions by the year <br /> <br />2000.66 A Bureau of Reclamation probability analysis has <br /> <br />-23- <br />