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South Platte Basin Roundtable Presentation <br />The South Platte Basin presented an overview of the major water issues in their basin to the <br />IBCC. The presentations are available on the IBCC website. Bob Streeter and Fred Wallcer <br />provided an overview of the basin, discussed water supply and demand, and covered basin <br />accomplishments as well as challenges and opportunities for the future. Bill Jerke concluded <br />with a discussion of the economic importance of the basin. The South Platte and Yampa/White <br />Roundtables will meet together in Walden in a few weeks. <br />Q~res~tios~: Relationship between your Roundtable and the South Platte task force? <br />Bill Jerke: We have two Roundtable members that serve on the task force. <br />Questiof~: What's driving land use change in the basin? <br />Bill Jerke: Growth, age of operators, and the fact that agriculture can't compete with <br />cities to purchase augmentation water for wells. <br />Qzses~tion: Do you see a change now that corn prices are up? <br />Bill Jerke: The well situation encourages people to move toward flexible crops like corn <br />and alfalfa. kaput costs for farming have gone up, and we need several if not more years <br />of high conunodity prices to come out ahead. I hope ethanol is a viable alternative, <br />because it may help add to the sustainability of agriculture. <br />Q7restiorr What's your current water situation? Is there a gap now, or only in the fiiture <br />Bob Streeter: There is a gap in recreational and enviroiunental areas. Some areas need <br />restoration, and there is more demand for water-based recreation than the river can meet. <br />Q~restiof~: As a long-term issue, how important is storage? <br />Fred Walker: With more storage, we could take advantage of more water events. Don't <br />think more storage is cost effective right now because the firm yield would be low. <br />Chips Bart~~: At Denver Water, our technical staff estimated 120,000 ac-ft of water we <br />had rights to passed through this year because we didn't have room for it in storage. <br />Carl Trick: Can the South Platte sustain itself without importing additional water? <br />Bill Jerke: We're developing some projects right now like NISP and the Windy Gap <br />firming. NISP will carry some participants to 2015, others not that long. <br />Discussion of Basin Wide Water Needs Assessments <br />Eric Hecox gave an update on the consumptive and non-consumptive work groups, and provided <br />the group with several handouts. One handout contained an update of the needs assessment work <br />in each basin. A second pulled together how the IBCC has defined its role in both the Charter <br />and the "path forward" document. The work groups are geared towards helping Roundtables <br />complete their needs assessments based on a common teclulical platform. The consumptive <br />work group met for the first time on August 1'`t. The non-consumptive work group met earlier in <br />the summer, and developed a common process for Roundtables to use if they wish in developing <br />their needs assessment. <br />6 <br />