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Section 2 Conservation and Efficiency Technical Roundtable cases are already an integral part of meeting future water demands, and are part of water provider's future plans. This section is intended to provide information and resources to support water providers as they pursue both meaningful water conservation and efficiency measures as well as traditional water storage and development projects. This section explores the role that conservation and efficiency can play in meeting future water needs and provides recommendations that encourage Colorado to move to more effective conservation and efficiency programs, while at the same time respecting local planning and protection of water rights and private property. During SWSI and the TRT process, some providers expressed concern that the work described in this section could be used to interfere with or be used as justification to put at risk or eliminate structural solutions that water providers are pursuing to meet current and future water demand and provide drought protection. It is not the intent of CWCB to interfere with local decisionmaking or endanger projects and processes that were identified by local water providers in the 2004 SWSI Report as necessary to meeting long-term water needs. The primary policy debate that emerged from this TRT can generally be characterized in the following manner: ~ On the one hand, water providers recognize the important role that conservation plays in reducing future demands. At the same time, since conservation measures take decades to fully implement, and given the fact that there is uncertainty in the total amount of water saving that can be achieved, water providers also believe they must concurrently pursue structural water storage and management projects to ensure that future water needs are met. ~ On the other hand, some conservation and environmental interests believe that conservation can be cost-effective and should be pursued first; before storage and other structural projects are constructed. These two schools of thought clearly have validity and additional agreement and consensus building should be pursued to allow more timely and effective implementation of both structural water projects and conservation measures. The following realities should be considered in bringing water providers and conservation and environmental interests together. ~ Some conservation measures take decades to fully implement ~ Each water provider's system and water rights are different and local planners are in the best position to make decisions on the timing and the nature of the water needs of their communities ~ Water projects take almost a decade and in some cases much longer to design, permit, and implement ~ Water demand beyond the year 2030 will continue to grow; both conservation and storage are needed to address timeline and future needs beyond 2030 This section describes the activities and products from the TRT that was formed to address Water Conservation and Efficiency (Agricultural and Municipal and Industrial) issues. Subsequent to the formation of this TRT, it was determined that the discussion of agricultural efficiency issues was better suited for discussion by the Alternative Agricultural Transfer Methods TRT. Information on agricultural efficiency can be found in Section 3. A high efficiency clothes washer can save over 20 gallons per load, reducing water used for clothes washing by over 50 percent 2-2 FINAL DRAFT