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Section 10 <br />Basin-Specific Options <br />10.1.7 North Platte Basin <br />The North Platte Basin includes the North Platte and <br />Laramie Rivers. The North Platte Basin is one of <br />Colorado's only basins with concern over the lack of <br />growth and economic development. Other issues include <br />a desire to ensure protection of existing water supplies, <br />and a concern over the impact of the lack of forest <br />management. It is important to ensure that Endangered <br />Species issues on the Platte River in central Nebraska <br />do not put pressure on North Platte water users to <br />reduce existing uses. <br />10.1.7.1 North Platte Basin Gap Analysis Issues <br />Because no M&I gap is anticipated, no issues arose in <br />the North Platte Basin Roundtable process for this use. <br />10.1.7.2 North Platte Basin Supply Availability <br />IssueS <br />^ The North Platte Decree, as described in Section 4 <br />and 7, limits the total irrigated acres, agricultural <br />reservoir storage, and transmountain diversions. <br />^ RICDs and CWCB instream flow water rights may <br />impact the ability to manage water supplies upstream <br />of such water rights. <br />10.1.7.3 North Platte Basin Summary of <br />Conditional Storage Rights <br />To portray the conditional storage rights present in the <br />North Platte Basin, the area was described using water <br />districts as shown in Figure 10-17. <br />The two water districts in the North Platte Basin can also <br />be described using the main stream systems, which are <br />shown in Table 10-13. <br />Table 10-13 North Platte Basin Water Districts and <br />Associated Stream Names <br />e <br />47 North Platte River <br />48 Laramie River <br />~~ <br />The two water districts in the North Platte Basin have <br />conditional storage rights of approximately 45,000 AF <br />with a priority of between 1900 and 1920, and 25,000 AF <br />with a priority between 1980 and 2002. As shown in <br />Table 10-14, there is a total of approximately 70,000 AF <br />of conditional storage rights in the basin, which far <br />exceeds the amount allowed under the North Platte <br />Decree. The numbers presented in this table describe <br />the total volume of conditional rights by priority time <br />period and not the number of individually decreed <br />conditional rights. These priority time periods are based <br />on adjudication dates and used solely for the purpose of <br />aggregating the numerous conditional rights into a table <br />for presentation. <br />Water District 48 in the North Platte Basin has the largest <br />volume of conditional storage rights, comprising almost <br />45,000 AF. Water District 47 comprises the remaining <br />25,000 AF. This is depicted in Table 10-14 and also <br />presented graphically in Appendix H. <br />Figure 10-18 focuses on the priority date of the <br />conditional storage rights. All of the conditional storage <br />rights in Water District 48 in the North Platte Basin have <br />priority dates between 1900 and 1920. Water District 47 <br />has conditional rights with priority dates between 1940 <br />and 2002. <br />A map of the locations of the conditional storage rights in <br />the North Platte Basin is shown in Figure 10-19. Different <br />colored circles are used to represent the total volume of <br />conditional rights that each location holds. This figure <br />also shows the locations of potential damsites in the <br />North Platte Basin, as discussed in Section 10.1.7.4 <br />below. <br />The development of conditional water rights in the North <br />Platte Basin is limited by interstate decree as described <br />in Section 7. <br />~~ <br />Sfvtewide Woter Supoly Initiofive <br />10-30 S:\REPORT\WORD PROCESSING\REPORT\S10 11-11-04.DOC <br />