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

3.1.4. Water Management Strategies

For the purpose of the Basin-Wide Overview, it is useful to consider the universe of
possible water management strategies available to municipal water providers as fitting
into six categories, including five supply-side strategies and one demand management
strategy (water conservation), which are described below, Individual water providers
utilize these strategies to varying degrees according to their individual circumstances and
opportunities. All of these strategies can be implemented through cooperative actions as
well as through individual efforts. The relative role of each of these strategies in meeting
the existing municipal and industrial water supply needs of the South Platte Basin is
shown in Figure 3,

Figure 3: Existing Municipal & Industrial Water Supply,
South Platte Basin of Colorado

Water
Conservation
17%

Denver
Basin
Groundwater
4%

T ransbasin
Imports
30%

South Platte
Native Supplies
18%

In-Basin
Agricultural
Transfers
25%

3.1.4.1.

Native South Platte Supplies

This source includes water supplies diverted from native South Platte surface flows under
municipal water rights. At the time when significant urban development began on the
Front Range, most of the reliable flow of the South Platte had already been appropriated
for irrigation use. Consequently municipal water supplies from this category depend

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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