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2.0 WATER DEMANDS AND WATER RIGHTS <br />2.1. Water Supply Demands <br />In 1978, withdrawals of ground water in the Republican River Basin reached <br />approximately 1,040,000 acre-feet per year. In 2005, ground water pumping was <br />approximately 750,000 acre-feet per year. Ground water impacts from ground water <br />diversions in Colorado included in the RRCA Compact Accounting averaged <br />approximately 25,370 acre-feet per year over the period 2002-2006. These impacts are <br />primarily due to ground water diversions that occurred decades ago. <br />Starting in 2003, Colorado has exceeded its compact allocations by an average of <br />11,350 acre-feet per year. Some reduction in the amount that Colorado has exceeded <br />its compact allocations is expected in the future as the result of irrigated acreage <br />retirement programs supported by the RRWCD. However, it is projected that the deficit <br />will increase gradually to 15,000 acre-feet in 2039. <br />The expected yield of the Compact Compliance Pipeline is 15,000 acre-feet per year, <br />which should be adequate to ensure compact compliance for the 30-year period of <br />repayment of the CWCB 1oan. The Compact Compliance Pipeline will be designed to <br />deliver 15,000 acre-feet of ground water over a nine-month period so that there will <br />flexibility to reduce deliveries in years of higher water supply. <br />2.2. Water Rights <br />The RRWCD WAE does not currently own rights to ground water that could be used for <br />the Compact Compliance Pipeline. The analysis of alternatives below discusses <br />possible sources of ground water for the Compact Compliance Pipeline. The preferred <br />alternative is to acquire existing rights to designated ground water and to transfer the <br />historical consumptive use of those rights to new wells that will supply the Compact <br />Compliance Pipeline. See Section 3.4 below. <br />3.0 <br />3.1. <br />PROJECT DESCRIPTION <br />Purpose and Background of the Compact Compliance Pipeline <br />The Final Settlement Stipulation entered into by the States of Kansas, Nebraska, and <br />Colorado in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Kansas v. Nebraska and Colorado in 2002 <br />provided for the dismissal of all claims for damages through December 2002, and all <br />three States agreed that compact accounting would be done based on a five-year <br />running average, beginning in 2003. The first five-year period ends at the end of 2007. <br />Colorado's beneficial consumptive use has exceeded its compact allocations in 2003, <br />2004, 2005, and 2006 by approximately 11,350 acre-feet per year. Due to drought <br />conditions in 1999-2002, it was anticipated that Colorado would exceed its Compact <br />allocations in 2003 and 2004; however, it was expected that hydrologic conditions would <br />then return to average or above-average conditions, which would bring Colorado close <br />to compliance with the Compact for a number of years. Eventually, because the RRCA <br />0 <br />