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 Results

3.1.2.3. Arkansas River Basin

The waters ofthe Arkansas River Basin currently constitute a relatively small water
supply source for the metro Denver area. The City of Aurora is the only metro Denver
area provider that diverts native water supplies from the Arkansas basin, Aurora diverts
Arkansas water via its Otero pump station, which it also uses to divert water imported
into the Arkansas from the Colorado River basin. Until recently, Aurora's diversions of
Arkansas supplies have been less than 1,000 acre-feet per year to date, consisting of its
water rights from two small ranches in the upper Arkansas basin. In the past five years
Aurora has begun using up to 8,000 acre-feet of its recently transferred water rights from
the Colorado Canal and the Rocky Ford Ditch. Aurora's ultimate diversions under these
projects are expected to be approximately 14,000 acre-feet per year.

3.1.3. Metro Denver Area Water Supply Service Areas

As defined in this report, the metro Denver area includes both the Central and South
Service Area Regions as described above. Municipal water supply in the metro Denver
area is provided by a combination of cities, counties and special purpose water districts.
Figure 2 shows the service areas of the major water providers in the metro Denver area.
Over 98% of municipal and industrial water use in metro Denver is represented by the 26
water providers shown in the figure. Denver Water is the largest water supplier,
providing exclusive supply to the City and County of Denver and by contract to 76 other
cities and water districts. Denver also provides partial water supply to 15 other providers.
A list of Denver Water's contract obligations to other providers is shown in Table 1.

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