Laserfiche WebLink
<br />') <br /> <br />... <br /> <br />Executive Summary <br /> <br />) <br /> <br />Denver Water's mission historically has been to provide its customers in the City and <br />County of Denver and its contract distributors with high quality water and excellent <br />service at the lowest possible price. While this mission continues, Denver's approach to <br />water supplies has undergone profound change the past several years. In part, this <br />cl:1ange resulted from a-new and complex political and regulatory environment that <br />culmi~ated in the federal government'1i veto of the Two Forks dam and reservoir project <br />in 1989. That project was designed to capture and store an additional I. I million acre- <br />feet of water and would have provided for the needs of much of Metropolitan Denver <br />well into the 21st Century., <br />, <br /> <br />... <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />.With the project's veto, Denver Water moved to redefine the limits of its service area and <br />to reassess its traditional assumptions for providing the water supplies needed to meet <br />customer demand in that area. This challenge required a new approach to 'planning. By <br />1993, it was clear that a technique adapted from the electric utility industry-Integrated <br />Resource Planning (IRP)-couId help address the challenge. IRP includes techniques to <br />factor in changing public and regulatory sentiment and new technologies, as well as <br />traditional engineering and financial aspects of water utility planning. Using an IRP <br />process, Denver launched a three-year intensive study of the capacities/and'potential of <br />its water supply network. Significantly, this effort included extensive participation from <br />the public and o]!tside interests who have a stake in how Denver approaches present and <br />future water. supplies. While this new planning methodology is designed to be oPen- <br />ended and evolutionary as new information or conditions warrant, by the end of 1996 the <br />extended analysis arrived at conclusions that now form the basis of a near-term and a <br />long-term strategy for Denyer Water. <br /> <br />A principal policy decision made in the context of the IRP process is that Denver Water <br />will not attempt to extend its service area by creating new distributors outside that <br />service area. This clearly defined "Combined Service Area" <;onsisting of the City of <br />Denver and its 75 subuiban contract distributors makes manageable the forecasting <br />needed to anticipate Denver Water's needs as growth and development within that area <br />proceed to "build-out." An ever-expanding service area would have meant aiming at a <br />moving but constantly increasing target. . . <br /> <br />) <br /> <br />At present, about 265,000 acre-feet of water is needed annually by all of the various <br />types of residential, commercial and public users in Denver's service area. With reliable <br />annual supplies of 345,000 acre-feet, Denver now has an 80,000 acre-foot annual surplus <br />in its water storage system. An acre-foot of water is about 325,000 gallons and typically <br />is estimated to serve a family of four when all attendant commercial, industrial, and <br />public uses are apportioned across the residential use. <br /> <br />) <br /> <br />) <br /> <br />iv <br />