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3. historically discharged, used repeatedly, and returned to streams in the South Platte <br />basin thereby supplementing the native flows. <br />The greater Denver area has grown rapidly since World War II, but beginning in the <br />1970's the cities of the Front Range-from Ft. Collins on the North to Loveland, Longmont, <br />Boulder, to Colorado Springs and Pueblo on the South-experienced extraordinary growth that <br />clustered in dozens of towns and cities strung like beads on and near the north-south Interstate 25 <br />string. The front range has become the heart of the ski/outdoor "mountain-chic" lifestyle so <br />attractive to the high-technology personnel. But, to serve the burgeoning demand, there are only a <br />few water supply options available to the population centers as they competitively seek to expand <br />their respective tax bases by attracting the next "big box" retail outlet, and post-industrial <br />information intensive enterprise: <br />1. further dry up agriculture to move water to lawns, gardens, fountains, golf courses; <br />2. seek additional or enlarged transmountain water diversions; <br />3. water conservation and re-use; <br />4. deplete aquifers, especially largely non-renewable Denver basin supplies; <br />5. create new storage facilities to capture the modest remaining peak flows of native <br />water. <br />The greater Denver metropolitan area has added about 510,000 residents during the <br />1990's, and it is projected to add another 1 million to its 2.3 million population by 2020. Flows <br />vary widely on the South Platte reach by reach and between diversions, due to differences in land <br />and water use. Upstream from Denver, the South Platte is regulated by large water supply/flood <br />control reservoirs. Near Denver, most of the South Platte flow is diverted to city pipelines and <br />returns to the river via wastewater treatment facilities. These municipal and industrial returns are <br />supplemented by northern Colorado river tributaty flows and deliveries from the west slope upper <br />Colorado river basin as the South Platte wends its way northeast to exit the state near Julesberg, <br />Colorado, beyond which it flows into western Nebraska. <br />Colorado Nexus: Denver Water <br />The Denver Board of Water Commissioners (Denver Water), historically, did not rely on <br />federal funding to capture and deliver its water supply. As a young city, Denver used its resources <br />to purchase land, litigate rights, and develop the Moffat and Roberts Tunnel collection systems <br />that brought to the city and its suburbs west slope water captured in several reservoirs including <br />its jewel, the Dillon Reservoir. By the 1960's, Denver considered itself as the premier water <br />provider of the greater Denver metropolitan area (Cox 1967); (Lochhead 2000). Denver Water <br />had become a large bureaucracy operating 31 pumping stations, 32 storage reservoirs, several <br />water treatment plants, and a billion dollar capital expenditure program (Gottlieb and Wiley <br />1982). <br />By the early 1970's, Denver was no longer untouched by federal environmental law. By <br />the time the Foothills water treatment plant was proposed, many environmental laws were in <br />place, and a strong opposition to the project emerged from the Environmental Protection Agency <br />21