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

Executive Summary

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Executive Summary

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The Metropolitan Water Supply Investigation (MWSI) was initiated by Governor Romer
and the Colorado General Assembly in 1993 to explore cooperative solutions to future
metropolitan Denver area water supply needs that would minimize the conflicts often
associated with development oflarge scale water supply infrastructure such as transbasin
diversion projects. The primary focus of the MWSI was the analysis of supply-side
options involving the cooperative use, operation and/or linkage of existing water supply
systems in a manner that would enhance water yields. By design, the MWSI did not
explore new water development projects involving significant new infrastructure, nor did
it examine the potential savings from additional water conservation programs.

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The MWSI identified and evaluated cooperative water supply options in four primary
categories:

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. conjunctive use

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. effluent management

. interruptible supply arrangements

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. other system integration opportunities

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The MWSI demonstrates that cooperative water supply options exist with respect to
conjunctive use, effluent management, and other system integration opportunities to help

meet a large part of the anticipated future needs in the major geographic sub-regions' of
the metropolitan Denver area. For several reasons, interruptible supply arrangements
between fanners and cities appear less promising at this point in time.

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The cooperative options, as examined in this investigation, would not require
construction of new transbasin diversion facilities, though additional transbasin
diversions using existing facilities and water rights could be necessary to fully realize the
potential of conjunctive use in the South metro sub-region and other system integration
options available to the Northwest metro sub-region. Reusable return flows associated
with increased transmountian diversions in turn help to expand cooperative options in the
area of effluent management. Improvements to the existing water storage and
distribution infrastructure serving the metropolitan area would be necessary, but such
improvements would not entail major new on-stream reservoirs.

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For purposes of understanding how cooperative water supply options can function, the metro Denver area is best
viewed as a collection of geographic sub-regions defined by their primary sources of supply. These sub-regions are
referred to in this report as the Denver Central, the South metro, the City of Aurora, Northeast metro, and Northwest
metro. Cooperative water supply options vary between sub-regions due to each region's unique water supplies and
water development history.

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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