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<br />i- <br /> <br />The overall view of the Denver Basin Aquifers also reveals a complex combination of <br />water use and resource protection. The Denver Basin Aquifer system consists of the <br />Dawson (upper and lower), Denver, Arapahoe (upper and lower), and Laramie-Fox Hills <br />aquifers. The aquifers cover an area of about 6,700 square miles extending from. <br />Colorado Springs on the south to Greeley on the north, and from the foothills on the <br />west to Limon on the east (Figure 1 and 2). <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />The Aquifer system contains approximately 300 million ac-ft of drainable storage. To <br />put this quantity of water in perspective, this amounts to a reservoir 15 times greater <br />than the active storage of Lake Powell (20 million ac-ft), and 400 times greater than the <br />active storage of Blue Mesa Reservoir (750,000 ac-ft). The estimated total pumping of <br />groundwater from the Denver Basin Aquifers in 1996 was 56,000 ac-ft. This is less. <br />than 2% (60,000 ac-ft) of the 1% (3,000,000 ac-ft) annual allowable pumping quantity <br />under the 100 year aquifer life administration criteria provisions of Senate Bill 85-5. <br /> <br />II. Public Water Policy Issues <br /> <br />This study has raised a number of water policy issues that must be addressed <br />through additional study and public meetings, and by the legislature acting in its <br />role as "decision maker" in public water policy. <br /> <br />The water needs of the Denver metropolitan area and South Platte River basin <br />are increasing as a result of population growth. Water for this increasing <br />population will come from a combination of six sources: 1) Water conservation 2) . <br />Water reuse 3) Trans-basin imports 4) Conversion of in-basin agricultural water <br /> <br />-2- <br />