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River. Therefore, it is important to be able to accurately determine the consumptive <br />use of water on the west slope, particularly as Colorado comes closer to fully using its <br />compact apportionment. Given this background, the needs of the Colorado River Basin <br />are: <br />1. Improved runoff forecasting. <br />2. Additional real -time satellite - linked stream gaging stations. <br />3. Improved estimates of consumptive use through additional climate stations, <br />lysimeter data, and maintenance of the irrigated acreage data developed for 1993 <br />as part of the CRDSS project. <br />The Arkansas River, the Rio Grande, Costilla Creek, the La Plata River, the Republican <br />River, the North Platte and Laramie Rivers, are being depleted at or very near the limits <br />established by interstate compacts or U.S. Supreme Court decrees. Significant <br />developable water only remains in the Colorado River Basin (Divisions 4, 5, 6 and 7) <br />and in the South Platte River Basin (Division 1). Preliminary demand projections <br />indicate that Colorado would consume all of those remaining compact entitlements. <br />• Colorado is facing increased demands for water from downstream states in the Colorado <br />River Basin, the South Platte River Basin, the Republican River Basin, the Arkansas <br />River Basin, the North Platte Basin, the Laramie River Basin, and the Rio Grande Basin. <br />These demands stem from either growth, the needs of endangered wildlife species listed <br />under the Endangered Species Act, or both. Colorado must be able to defend its compact <br />and federal decree apportionments against those increasing demands and related efforts <br />to challenge or litigate these apportionments. The importance of having quality data to <br />support decision systems and models became evident in the litigation with Kansas <br />( Kansas v. Colorado 1985). The legislature, the Colorado Water Conservation Board <br />and the Division of Water Resources should, therefore, continue to develop data centered <br />decision support systems similar to the CRD5S in each of Colorado's major river basins. <br />1'3 <br />