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Interbasin Compact Committee Annual Report <br />Foreword <br />October 31, 2008 <br />Page 2 <br />Vision for Colorado's Water Supply Future <br />The IBCC is addressing a series of questions through a visioning exercise designed to examine what <br />Colorado's water supply future looks like and explore the difficult water supply choices facing Colorado. <br />These questions include: If we let Colorado's water supplies continue to develop according to current trends <br />and existing policy, what will our state look like in 50 years? Is this our vision of the future of Colorado? Is <br />this future inevitable? If it is not, what can and should we do to effect changes? <br />The IBCC has come to general agreement on a vision statement and goals that further define that vision <br />statement. The next step in the visioning process is to evaluate water supply strategies for achieving the <br />vision. <br />Basin-Wide Water Needs Assessments <br />To develop a deeper understanding of the water needs throughout Colorado, each BRT is developing abasin- <br />wide water needs assessment addressing four questions. <br />1. What are each basin's consumptive water needs (municipal, industrial, and agricultural)? <br />2. What are each basin's non-consumptive water needs (environmental and recreational)? <br />3. What are our available water supplies (surface and groundwater) and how much water is unappropriated? <br />4. What projects or methods are available to meet our identified water needs? <br />Several efforts are underway to help each BRT answer these questions. Each BRT is building on the SWSI <br />information to develop their needs assessment. <br />This past year, the BRTs identified additional information needs and submitted "task orders" to the IBCC <br />technical assistance team and/or funded studies through the WSRA. As these task orders and studies are <br />completed, the information gathered will be incorporated into the BRTs' consumptive and nonconsumptive <br />needs assessment. A status summary of each roundtable's basin-wide water needs assessment is included in <br />the third quarter newsletter. <br />The BRTs efforts are being supplemented by the following statewide activities. <br />Colorado River Supply Availability Study: The Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB), in <br />consultation and cooperation with the BRTs, is attempting to determine how much water is available under <br />Colorado's allocation of Colorado River water. <br />? Demands to 2050: The CWCB is working to update SWSI water supply demands from 2030 to 2050 using <br />an extrapolation of the State Demographer's model. <br />Tracking Projects Identified in SWSI: A number of "Identified Projects and Processes" (IPP) were <br />predicted to be able to account for 80 percent of the water supply demand by 2030. The CWCB will be <br />tracking the status of each of these IPPs as well as new plans and projects. <br />These studies will provide further information that will enable smart planning and decision-making at the <br />local and state levels and help ensure a secure water future for all Coloradans.