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October 24, 2005 . (revised) Central Colorado Project (also known as Union Park-Aspinall Pool Project) Colorado's optimal water storage alternative for droughts and growth Description Central Colorado Project (CCP) is an innovative water storage alternative that can satisfy most of Colorado's future drought and growth needs. CCP's high altitude Union Park pumped-storage site can economically save up to 1.2 million acre- feet of Colorado's undeveloped Colorado River Compact and Aspinall Pool entitlements during normal and wet cycles. These conserved spring flood waters will then be available for responsive gravity deliveries, when and where needed, throughout Colorado's five major river basins. City, farm, and environmental stakeholders will be long-term winners throughout the Gunnison, Upper Colorado, South Platte, Arkansas, and Rio Grande River Basins. . Backqround Retired U.S. Bureau of Reclamation engineers formed the Natural Energy Resources Company (NECO) in 1982 to develop Colorado's renewable water and power potential with advanced pumped-storage technology. Feasibility studies by NECO's major engineering consultants (Ebasco Services and Black & Veatch) have confirmed that a large Union Park Reservoir could economically provide multiple benefits for both sides of the Divide. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers analysis verified Union Park's safe yields during the environmental studies for Two Forks Dam. 1988 Bureau of Reclamation transmountain studies also confirmed Union Park's technical and economic potential for statewide needs. NECO sold its 1982 conditional Union Park hydropower decree and transmountain development rights to Arapahoe County in 1988. After twelve years of additional studies and litigation, Colorado's Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that Arapahoe County's Application for a new transmountain water right duplicated the Bureau's undeveloped Aspinall Pool Right. The Aspinall Pool was authorized by Congress in 1956 to help Colorado develop 300,000 acre-feet of its unused Colorado River Compact for statewide consumptive needs. In spite of the Court's favorable Aspinall Pool revelation, Arapahoe County decided in 2002 to deed its Union Park decree and development rights back to NECO. NECO is now proposing CCP as a four-phased local, state, and federal program to develop the overlooked Aspinall Pool with Union Park's multi-basin pumped-storage capabilities. Recent Geological, Geotechnical, and Hydrologic Loading Investigations by Ueblacker Associates and WRC Engineering indicate a modern roller compacted concrete (RCC) dam at Union Park can safely store up to 1.2 million acre- feet. The dam's estimated construction cost is only $329 per acre-foot of storage (see web site: www.ueblacker.us). Maior advantaGes of CCP over other alternatives: . . Consumptively uses Colorado's undeveloped and threatened interstate rights; . Stops dry-up of east slope farms and Upper Colorado tourist areas; . Augments streams, when and where needed, for variable drought conditions;