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c) Eagle River Basin Through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Colorado Springs, Aurora, the Vail Consortium, Climax Mine and the Colorado River Water Conservation District, the Eagle River Assembly is exploring cooperative projects that could serve in -basin and out -of -basin needs. The MOU establishes a 20 acre -feet cap on the amount of water that Aurora and Colorado Springs can divert out of the basin in exchange for those cities' agreement to abandon the Homestake II Project. The MOU also provides for an additional 10,000 acre -feet of water, which should be sufficient to meet in -basin buildout water supply and environmental needs. The most promising water development options for the Eagle River basin involve the possible enlargement of Eagle Park Reservoir, water rights available from the Climax Mine, and a conjunctive use project at Camp Hale with a pumpback system to Eagle Park Reservoir. Denver Water has been exploring options for participation in the Eagle River Assembly and possible modification of the MOU to address Denver's conditional water rights for the Eagle - Piney and Eagle - Colorado Projects. One of the options under discussion would allow Denver Water to receive a firm yield of 5,000 acre -feet delivered to Dillon Reservoir from the Climax Mine via Tenmile Creek. E. Annual Water Supply Reliability Report One beneficial aspect of the 2002 drought was that it heightened public awareness about the importance of water resources in this semi -arid region and our potential vulnerability to drought. Unfortunately, many water consumers were caught by surprise when their providers imposed outdoor water use restrictions and surcharges to conserve water resources. Drought- related impacts on consumers were much more severe in some communities than others. For example, the water supply system for the Town of Beulah failed completely and its residents were forced to truck in all of the water necessary to meet their needs, while in other communities water providers imposed no water use restrictions. Water utilities need to have a great deal of flexibility in determining how to meet their current and future water demands because of the wide variety of growth pressures and circumstances that affect the availability of water between different locations around the state. It is thus reasonable to expect that drought will affect some water systems and their customers more severely than others. Given these uncertainties, it seems appropriate that water consumers have good information about the reliability of the water supply systems on which their homes and businesses depend. It is also important that water consumers be informed about the risks of drought- related water use restrictions and increased costs of service that may result from service of new growth by their water utilities and the actions for which existing consumers will be responsible when droughts occur. Whatever course of action water utilities choose in making future management decisions, they should all be required to report to their customers on the reliability of their systems with respect to drought. Under the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act, communities are required to provide a Consumer Confidence Report annually to their customers with information about drinking water quality. The Colorado legislature should require that water providers issue a W .