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<br />. <br /> <br />water in any period of ten consecutive years. The Decree requires Colorado to prepare <br />and maintain complete and accurate records of the total area of land irrigated and the <br />storage and exportation of water and to make such records available for inspection. <br /> <br />III. Background: Current water use and anticipated new water related activities <br /> <br />In its 1945 opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court found that 131,800 acres were presently <br />under irrigation in Jackson County in Colorado. Since then the number of acres being <br />irrigated in anv one vear has been as high as 134,467. The Decree allows Colorado to <br />irrigate up to 145,000 acres. For purposes of this Program, the parties to the Cooperative <br />Agreement agree that depletions associated with the irrigation of 134,468 acres constitute <br />existing water use, and depletions associated with the irrigation of between 134,468 and <br />145,000 acres in Jackson County constitute new water related activities. <br /> <br />The irrigation storage and export limits in the Decree also represent existing uses as of <br />1945, and reflect the Supreme Court's recognition that transbasin diversions in some <br />years exceeded 6,000 acre-feet. Since the decreed limitations represent historical uses in <br />Jackson County, depletions within those limits constitute existing water uses. Storing <br />more than 17,000 acre-feet of water for irrigation purposes between October I of any year <br />and September 30 of the following year and exporting more than 60,000 acre-feet of <br />water in any period of ten consecutive years are not permitted under the Decree and, <br />therefore, are not included in the Program. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />In addition to existing uses in accordance with the Decree, Jackson County's small <br />population and limited industry consume a small quantity of water under prior existing <br />rights. Colorado does not anticipate significant population growth in Jackson County <br />during the term of the Cooperative Agreement or the first increment of the program.2 <br />Some opportunity exists for the development of new water-intensive industries in Jackson <br />County, such as pulp mills or coal slurry pipelines, though no specific plans are in place. <br />The parties to the Cooperative Agreement agree that municipal and industrial water uses <br />associated with new population growth and new industrial development over July I, 1997 <br />levels will constitute new water related activities. <br /> <br />Finally, decreed rights exist for piscatorial and other environmental purposes. The parties <br />to the Cooperative Agreement agree that such uses under existing decreed rights <br />constitute existing water uses and that any new uses constitute new water related <br />activities. <br /> <br />, Jackson County's population increased from 1605 residents in 1990 to 1771 residents in 1997, an annual <br />in crease of 1.3%. Over a thirteen year first period covered by the Program's first increment, Jackson <br />County's population would grow to 2150 (assuming present annual growth rates), a difference 0079 <br />residents. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Colorado's Future Depletions Proposal for <br />New Water Activities in the North Platte Basin, <br />Jackson County, Colorado <br />January 6. 1998 <br /> <br />Page 2 of4 <br />