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• Board Meeting Date: 3/18/2008
• Description: OWCDP Section - Presentation on the 2007 Drought & Water Supply Assessment
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

encourage more aggressive conservation would be to rate plans on their effectiveness as
measured by the reductions in water use sought in the plans and develop benchmarks for
reporting water use and consumption that are uniform for all systems. One way to improve
water accounting would be to adopt the International Water Association/American Water Works
Association methodology for water loss accounting.
Only 27% of respondents considered climate change impacts on long term water supply
planning. The survey found utilities who do consider the issue are responding fairly quickly and
are involved in incorporating uncertainties in long term planning. It was recommended the State
should continue to make climate change information available to suppliers.
In terms of needs assessments for water providers, the area of greatest need was for funding
project evaluations and feasibility studies, loans for capital projects, grants for planning activities
and grants for infrastructure management. Other areas of need included communicating the
value of water, improving water conservation planning and other loan programs. Survey
respondents expressed strong support for state involvement in providing these services to water
providers as both large and small systems could benefit.
Background
In 2003/2004, the CWCB undertook the project, Drought & Water Supply Assessment (DWSA),
to engage Colorado water users to determine how prepared Colorado had been for drought and to
identify limitations and related measures to better prepare the state for the future droughts. The
data collected addressed key issues water managers and planners throughout the state were
facing both short and long-term management of their respective water resources. The key issues
were: limitations to current water supply, status of water supply, drought planning, water
conservation planning, impacts of the 2002 drought, and limitations to planning for future water
supply, needs for structural and non-structural projects for drought mitigation and what the state
role was in future drought planning and mitigation efforts.
The 2004 Drought & Water Supply Assessment reached an extensive assemblage of water users
around the State that included municipal, agriculture, power, federal, state, industrial and other
industry sectors. The 383-question survey was completed by 537 participants.