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Statewide/Environmental Melinda Kassen Status Quo • Adopts Director Sherman's Status Quo Vision • Statewide we will have competing uses for a limited water supply. We will have to make trade-offs in order to balance our state's need for municipal and industrial (M&I), agricultural, energy, and environmental/recreational uses of water. Climate change may also add a new level of complexity and uncertainty to water planning. • The Eastern Plains will see significant reductions in agriculture and this will adversely affect the region's economy and way of life. "Buy and dry" approaches to water transfers will be the primary means of meeting water supply needs. • The Front Range will have a large urban population stretching from Fort Collins to Pueblo, and these land use decisions will guide many of Colorado's future water supply options. • Colorado's mountain communities will have seen the state's highest growth rates on a percentage basis as people move to these areas for the recreational and environmental amenities. Localized water supply shortages will be a challenge in these headwater areas. • The West Slope will have gone through or still be in an energy boom. This booming energy industry will stretch between Moffat and Montezuma Counties and will further intensify competition for Colorado's limited water supplies. • The San Luis Valley and North Park will see additional reductions in irrigated agriculture. In the San Luis Valley, some of our state's most productive agricultural land will be taken out of production as the communities strive to sustainably use their aquifers while meeting our compact obligations. In North Park, reductions in agriculture will likely be due to general pressures on the agriculture industry. Alternative • Land and water use decisions that allow the population growth that's coming (because we can't stop it) to occur in the most compact possible areas, preserving green space and working landscapes in between more urban centers and minimizing the adverse environmental and societal effects of transportation. • Compact urban centers on both the Front Range and Western Slope can benefit from serious water conservation measures both by teaching residents to use less water indoors and by minimizing outdoor watering, while still maintaining high quality of life. • Outdoor landscaping should respect Colorado's historical ecology by maximizing the use of native plants and minimizing large open fields of non-native turf. Eastern Plains agriculture would endure, based on changes in cropping patterns to take advantage of markets for lower water food and energy crops. 13 I:\INTERBASIN COMPACT COMMITTEEWISIONS FOR COLORADO WATER SUPPLY FUTURE\RESPONSES TO VISIONING AND MARCH MEETING\IBCC REPRESENTATIVE COMMENTS.DOC