BOARD01008

• Board Meeting Date: 1/27/2004
• Description: CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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TIlE niTL"RE OF :-lU'\ICIPAL \\ATER USE

by Peter Binney
City of Aurora Water Utilities

I' am goir.g to talk about water supply uncenai:rt)' from the
. municipal perspective. I want to try to put in context a lot of
t.lo;e rhetoric 3..'l.d hyperbole that you hear about when cities are
plarming their r.lture water development programs. What does
the r..ture hold for municipal water suppliers along the Front
Range? It all depends - it depends on where you are located in
the basin, it depends on what }'our water supplies incbde.

We have ve.}' diverse municipal water s)'stem.s in the Sou~'-L
Platte basill: at one end of the spectrum, we have mature
regio1'!.a1 waler systems such as the Denver Water system
which has been established for over 100 years; and we have the
Colorado Big Thompson system. It happens that both of these
systems were developed before the environmental awareness of
the 1960s a::.d the 1970s and include significant infrastructure
and reliable water rights portfolios. At the other end of the
spectrum you have metro districts and waler and sarJUtion dis-
tricts. a.'1d this is where a lot of urban development is occurring
here in Co]orado. These districts are primarily governmental
entities that were sel up to provide access to local water sup-
plies, rr.any of which arc using the water rC-SQurces in the Den-
ver Basin Aquifer. These entities have a major issue coming up
in tr,e near ~Jture about how to continue to meet water demand
as the productivity of aquifer supplies are reduced because of
changi"g aquifer condilior.s.

Then you have the less developed integrated regional water
systems like Aurora, Aurora has been developing its water
sysle::1 since the early 1950s when Denver Water pulled us
off their system. Significant investments in infrastnlc:u<e a.'1.d
waler supply acquisition are needed to meet the demands of
these growing communities. These various water systems will
have different strategies as they compete for water to meet their
customers' needs for the fu:ure.

You have heard about the Three SU:es Agreement. ~ot only
do we !:ave increasing population and competition from the
waler system users. We also have t!ew users coming in to com-
pele for a foxed water s!..:pply. That can come from additional
derna:-:ds for emironme:J.t.a1 benefi:.s but also from a.'1. increas-
ing desire fe'r instrea..-n recre:l.t:or.al diversions. A lot of what
we're going to have to deal v.'i:b is affected by how the Stale of
Coloradoadmi..'1.istersitswater.

Population and water de~anj projections over the :lex: 50
years i1iust!a:e so~e of tr.e bl.:rdens we v.ill have to deal \vi:..~ b
~e So1,;:"~ Platte. We can solve O1..<r problems :J1is)ear and "exl
vear we will come o"J:of:..~is drought. 81..:: as yot: go f.1..'1r.er
~ut, ~o ':030, :O~O, :'050. you v.ill see that SOlr.e very signifi-
ca.'1t cha:.ges wm have :0 oc~....r in :"~e basin.

10,000,000

8,000,000

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6,000,000

4,000,000

2,000,000

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1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
Year

Figure L Front Ra.'1ge and Colorzdo Population Growth.

We have to a:15wer the core question, as we are responding to
this drought u Why do we continue to have population growth?
Why do we continue to build if we can': meet the water supply
needs of our current customers?

:>-!any of you have seen the snake diagram of annual river flows. .
We see here in the South Platte, from the waler resources man-
agement standpoint, probably the last place you would want
to put a population center in Colorado, but t.~at is where urban
grov.th is centered. V.'e ended up wit.; all of our people in per-
haps one of the d..-iest parts of the state. So, we have a classic
supply and demand problem.

Trans-basin diversions - A lot of what we hear as municipali-
ties is the need for legislated basin-of-origin protection -- this
begs the question about the rights of cities to bring water intO
the Front Ra.'1ge. That fact is certainly provided for in the
State's water rights ad..'1.1inistratiOI1 codes. Figure 2 is a rep.
rese:ltation of all the current diversions along the Continental
Divide that deliver water into the South Platte River basin
These trans-basin diversions, cons>..nJcted and operated over t.ie
last 100 years, have significarltly modified the hydrology of the
SOI.::h Platte River basin. I fully expect these diversions will
continue to operate and be expanded in the future.

Another thing we hear about is the absolute sa..'1clity of agr:cul-
tural v.ater uses and how they should be preserved and pro.
tected against tra..'15fers to municipal uses. Given the provisions
oftl'.e S:a:e's water rights ad.'1.1inis~ation codes and the property
rights asj:'eC'oS of water righ:.s, :t should be expected that :ra::s-
:-ers of ag:icub.:ral rights will cont:m.:e:o be a viable alter::at:ve
for meeting future water r.eeds in :he cities. One of tJ':.e biggest
a:eas ofurcan:zation beir.g s!..:pported 1;)" conversion of agricu]- .
Iura! righ:.s h:lj:'per.s to be in the Colcrajo-B:g Thorr-SOl": s~'s!em.
TI:e Roc;.y Ford system is a ca..,al system where Aurora has

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