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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I DRAFT 8/24/92, Page 21 Issues To Be Addressed There has been concern on the part of some water suppliers that savings from conservation are difficult to quantify and that such savings tend to be temporary. These concerns can be attributed primarily to educational programs to encourage conservation rather than measures incorporating hardware such as plumbing fixtures, meters, or even low water use landscaping and pricing strategies. Municipal water providers must be comfortable that conservation measures will result in quantifiable savings in order to defer new water development projects or to share water savings with other water users. It may be possible to solve this problem through the implementation of monitoring programs designed specifically to document and track the results of water conservation measures and programs. 2. Efficiency in Agricultural Water Use - Opportunities and Limitations Water consumption in the South Platte River Basin averages approximately 1.527 million acre-feet per year, 82 percent of which is used for irrigated agriculture. (Colorado Water Study, Background Volume, 1981) A one percent (1 %) reduction in 1.259 million acre- feet of water consumed by agriculture would make about 12,590 acre-feet per year available for other uses. It is apparent the relatively small transfers of water from the agricultural sector to domestic and industrial uses could provide significant increases in municipal supply without substantial reductions in irrigated agriculture. One possible mechanism for effectuating such transfers without removing agricultural lands from production would be to improve irrigation efficiency. Improved efficiency in agriculture could reduce irrigation demands and free-up water for transfer to cities. In California this became the preferred alternative when the Metropolitan Water District, serving the Los Angeles area, lost its bid to build the Peripheral Canal Project. The Metropolitan Water District has entered into an agreement with the Imperial IrrigatiC'n District in which the cities pay for improvements in efficiency and salvage of irrigation return flows in the Imperial Valley. In return, up to 250,000 acre-feet of water may be made available to Southern California cities without significant reductions in agricultural production. In the South Platte this particular approach is more difficult than in the Imperial Valley because of the general reliance on irrigation return flows to satisfy downstream water rights. Therefore, in some cases this option may be limited to reductions in consumptive use through reduced evaporation from ditches and fields. However, there are many cases where reductions in agricultural diversions through conservation can result in major benefits to municipal water supplies without injury to other water users. A particular opportunity for increasing agricultural efficiency involves the Grand Valley area of the Colorado River basin. Salinity control measures contemplated for the valley could result in significant reductions in the diversion requirements of the Grand Valley water rights. This could in turn result in more water available for upstream diverters as well as for instream uses. Issues To Be Addressed Reductions in "nonbeneficial" consumptive use can sometimes result in changes in riparian areas and wetlands which have previously come into existences because of traditional irrigation practices. The tradeoffs between the water supply benefits and environmental costs of agricultural water conservation programs must therefore be examined carefully.