PUB00053

• Year: 1999
• Title: Metropolitian Water Supply Investigation Final Report
• Author: Hydrosphere Resource Consultants
• Description: Metropolitian Water Supply Investigation Final Report
• Publications - Doc Type: Water Resource Studies

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Metropolitan Water Supply Investigation

MWSI Process

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. Effort would be made to work toward group consensus, with fallback to consensus
among affected parties; and

· The Assistant Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, would
serve as the primary point of contact with the news media.

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Tpe Phase I scoping process was completed in August of 1994 with T AC approval of a
P\1ase II Plan of Study (POS). The Phase II POS included an extensive inventory of
existing information, formulation of water supply options under four conceptual
categories of water supply sources, and development of a Phase III POS.

An important element of the POS related.to the formulation of water supply options was
the T AC's desire that the early phases of the MWSI not be unduly constrained by legal
arld institutional barriers to possible opportunities. This was intended to encourage
creative thinking and brainstorming about the technical feasibility of various options.
The T AC recognized that there could be potential legal and institutional barriers
associated with all four categories of sources, and the POS included efforts to identify
and disclose these issues.

The TAC also decided that the objectives of the MWSI's original modeling phase (Phase
III) might be best met by taking advantage of existing models in order to minimize new
model development efforts. The T AC included an inventory of available modeling tools
as part ofthe MWSI's Phase II POS.

It was also determined that the MWSI would not involve the development of new water
demand forecasts but would instead rely upon previous studies such as the Denver
Metropolitan Water Supply EIS and forecasts developed by individual water providers.

The TAC's selection of categories of water supply sources to be studied was based upon
a desire to learn more about cooperative approaches that more effectively utilize water
available to existing systems without construction of major new storage or collection
facilities. While the T AC considered many other options for study including demand
management and new surface water development proposals, these options were not
included in the study due to several considerations. Generally, options that were
eliminated were not consistent with the concept of cooperative utilization of existing
systems and facilities, were already being pursued or implemented by individual water
providers, and/or had already been investigated in other previous or ongoing studies.

2.2.2. Phase II Investigations

The initial efforts under Phase II involved the collection of available data and information
relevant to each of the conceptual water supply sources described above. This effort
included numerous T AC work sessions where study participants presented overviews of
their individual water supply systems, existing and future water demands, plans for
meeting future needs, and issues and concerns. The information gathered through this
process was compiled in a series of technical memoranda, which were provided to TAC
members during Phase II.

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Prepared fOT the Colorado Water Conservation Board, Colorado Department of Natural Resources by
Hydrosphere Resource Consultants, 1002 Walnut Street, Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302