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Mineral Resources <br />The USGS places the supporting spreadsheets for the Estimated Use of Water in the <br />United States on their WEB Site for the each five-year period. Mineral resource <br />consumptive use values from these spreadsheets were used. Linear interpolation was <br />used to estimate values between 1985 and 1990. <br />Mineral resource data obtained from the USGS is considered adequate to prepare an <br />estimate of this use. <br />Thermal Electric Use <br />Thermal-electric power plants were identified in the Colorado basin. Associated <br />diversion records were obtained. Water commissioners were contacted to determine the <br />actual depletion of the diversions. These records were complete and were judged to be <br />accurate. <br />Municipal and Industrial <br />Annual county and city population estimates were obtained from the Colorado Census <br />Bureau, and the percent of urban population determined based on these estimates. Gross <br />usage and consumptive ratio values were used to determine consumptive use of rural, <br />urban, public, and industrial sectors based on population. The resulting municipal and <br />industrial consumptive use is small compared to the irrigation and evaporation categories, <br />therefore, additional effort spent refining the estimates is not recommended. <br />Exports <br />The transbasin diversions out of the Colorado River Basin in Colorado were measured <br />and reported by the USGS, or local water commissioners and users. This area of basin <br />consumptive use is considered to be accurate. <br />Beneficial Consumptive Uses and Losses <br />Tables 1 through 5 show the total annual water use for the Colorado River basin in <br />Colorado for 1986 through 1990. This information is broken down by CRDSS basin and <br />by type of use. It is noted that these estimates do not include the portion (59.75%) of the <br />CRSP evaporation that the USBR may assign to Colorado. <br />Colorado's consumptive use varied between 1.7 million and 2.0 million and averaged 1.8 <br />million acre-feet per year for the period 1986 through 1990. Agricultural uses, including <br />crop consumptive use, stockpond evaporation, and livestock consumptive use, accounted <br />for about 64 percent of the total consumptive uses and losses in Colorado. Table 6 shows <br />the total irrigated acreage by CRDSS planning basin for 1986 through 19909/17/99. <br />Variation in consumptive use during the reporting period was largely due to changes in <br />climatic conditions. <br />culossapp Page 11 of 24 09/30/1999 <br />