25d ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 11/18/2007
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

-18-
compact obligations and potential climate change have made the supply uncertain.
Sherman said growth in Colorado has been the biggest factor in the importance of groundwater to the
state. ``The growth of cities up and down the Front Range absolutely affects groundwater. Every action
(with water) in the state affects groundwater. We have to come at these problems thinking about what's
best for Colorado. Developing groundwater recharge or underground storage in Colorado is important to
meeting the challenge. The state's role will be to provide the technical knowledge to help plan for
growth."
Colorado already has developed studies of storage opportunities in the South Platte and Arkansas basins.
In addition, the Colorado Water Conservation Board is finishing adecision-support study for water users
in the South Platte and will then begin work on the same sort of study for the Arkansas River basin.
"What are the limits for growth? How can we better manage more optimal utilization of our resources
consistent with sustainability?" Sherman asked. "This is an important role for the state to play."
Other speakers emphasized the importance of looking at groundwater storage.
Alan Hamel, executive director of the Pueblo Board of Water Works and roundtable chairman, said the
Preferred Storage Options Plan, which looks at the possibility of enlarging Lake Pueblo and Turquoise
Lake, could have added 75,000-100,000 acre-feet of water through storage for the valley if it had been in
place in 1999.
The roundtable backed a request by El Paso County water users in getting a CWCB grant for $75,000 to
study aquifer recharge in the Upper Black Squirrel Creek groundwater basin, which is legally not
tributary to the Arkansas River.
Rep. Amy Stevens, R-Monument, said the outlying areas of El Paso County are dependent on wells, and
now are looking at coordinated approaches to keep the wells viable.
Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera pointed out the city has grown only by importing water from
other places through an extensive pipeline system. The city uses a few wells as a minor part of its supply,
but wells are far more critical to outlying areas being developed in El Paso County.
As part of a University of Denver Futures Panel, Rivera said dealing with potential groundwater shortage
is critical if the state is to continue to grow.
WATER USERS WANT BRAKES ON PIPELINE PROJECT: Major water interests in Colorado are
trying to put the brakes on a plan to bring a pipeline from Flaming Gorge Reservoir across Wyoming to
Colorado's Front Range.
Aaron Million, who developed a theory to use the water for Colorado as a graduate student at Colorado
State University in Fort Collins, is applying fora 165,000-acre-foot allocation from Flaming Gorge
through the Bureau of Reclamation. He wants to move the water to thirsty Front Range communities
through a 400-mile pipeline along the Interstate 80 utilities corridor to serve communities in Colorado.
Million said the water could help fulfill development of Colorado's entitlement under the Colorado River
Compact. The claim is based on the Green River, which flows below Flaming Gorge through Utah, but
briefly enters and leaves Colorado near Dinosaur National Monument.
1~Iillion is displeased by the reaction of state water users to his project, saying they are protecting
Flood Protection • Water Project Planning and Finance • Stream and Lake Protection
Water Supply Protection • Conservation Plarming