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<br />ESTIMATED USE OF WATER IN COLORADO, 1985 <br /> <br />By David W. Litke and Cynthia L. Appel <br /> <br />ABSTRACT <br /> <br /> <br />Water-use data collected for the State of Colorado as part of the U.S. <br />Geological Survey's National Water-Use Information Program are summarized by <br />county and hydrologic subregion. An estimated 20,800 million gallons per day <br />of water waS used in Colorado during 1985; of this quantity, 89 percent came <br />from surface-water sources and 11 percent came from ground-water sources. <br />Public-supply systems provided only 4 percent of all water used in Colorado <br />during 1985 but provided 80 percent of all commercial, domestic, and <br />industrial water used. Ninety-three percent of the people in Colorado <br />obtained their domestic water from public-supply systems. For the entire <br />State, an estimated 4,840 million gallons per day of water was consumptively <br />used during 1985; return flows were about 16,000 million gallons per day. Of <br />all water used, 60 percent was used for irrigation, 35 percent for power <br />generation, and the remaining 5 percent for commercial, domestic, industrial, <br />livestock, mining, and other uses. Among counties of Colorado, most water was <br />used in Montrose (3,260 million gallons per day), Mesa (1,940 million gallons <br />per day), and Gunnison (1,520 million gallons per day) Counties. The <br />predominant water uses in these counties were hydroelectric power and <br />irrigation. Among hydrologic subregions in Colorado, most water was used in <br />the Gunnison (5,630 million gallons per day) and South Platte (4,350 million <br />gallons per day) subregions; power water use was predominant in the Gunnison <br />subregion while irrigation water use was predominant in the South Platte <br />subregion. <br /> <br />Manuscript approved for publication June 28, 1988. <br /> <br />INTRODUCTION <br /> <br />Water-use information is needed for two primary reasons. First, it is <br />needed by people seeking to understand the hydrologic system. In order to <br />construct a water budget for an area, it is necessary to know how human <br />activities affect water entering and leaving an area. Such an understanding <br />is useful to the citizen as well as to the scientist because water is a <br />necessity for daily life. Second, water-use information is needed by those <br />who wish to plan for an area's future needs. Analysis of patterns and trends <br />in water-use data can aid in developing an understanding of the nature of <br />human demand for water and can help in estimating what future demand will be. <br /> <br />1 <br />