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<br />b. Urban areas.
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<br />(1) The thirty communities which experienced flooding in
<br />June 1965 had a total population (1960) in excess of 999,433. These
<br />communities ranged in size from metropolitan Denver (populatio1l929,383)
<br />to three towns of less than 100 persons each. Outside of metropolitan
<br />Denver, the largest communities which experienced flooding were
<br />Greeley, Colorado (population 26,314) and Sterling, Colorado (population
<br />10,751).
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<br />(2) Metropolitan economy. Metropolitan Denver ranks as the
<br />twenty-fif~h largest metropolitan area in the United States among the
<br />fifty-five metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or over. It
<br />serves as the marketing and distribution center of the Rocky Mountain
<br />area, and 'the commercial, financial, manufacturing, 'professional and
<br />cultural hub of t)1is vast region.. Its leading industries by order of
<br />rank are manufacturing, retail trade, wholesale trade, public utilities,
<br />service industries, construction finance, and mining. In 1960, the
<br />number of persons employed in the Denver metropolitan area was 353~823.
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<br />c. Rural areas. The South Platte River basin contains approximately
<br />15.5 million acres of land and water, 12.7 million acres are in farms
<br />and ranches of which 980,000 acres are irrigated and 11,120,000 acres
<br />are non-irrigated. Livestock and livestock products make up 48 percent
<br />of the value of all farm products produced in the basin. Field crops
<br />produce 39 percent of the value of farm production and the remaining
<br />13 percent of production value results from dairy operations, poultry,
<br />and fruit and truck crops. The major field crops produced are winter
<br />wheat, alfalfa, corn, barley, sugar beets, field beans, hay forage
<br />sorghum, grain sorghum, oats, potatoes, rye,. and spring wheat. Irrigation
<br />provides,the stable economic base for the rural economy of the basin.
<br />Irrigation systems have been developed from surface water and ground-
<br />water resources. Groundwater irrigation was developed initially in
<br />the 1930's and principally after World War II. The surface water
<br />supply averages approximately 1.4 million acre-feet annually, of which
<br />about 14 percent is imported by transmountain diversion. Seventy-two
<br />diversion systems divert irrigation water from the main stem of the
<br />South Platte River. There are approximately 360,000 acres under
<br />irrigation in the South Platte River valley, about 242,000 acres in
<br />the Cache LaPoudre River valley, and 90,000 acres in the Big Thompson
<br />River valley. The Lodgepole Creek, Crow Creek and Beaver and Badger
<br />Creek valleys combined have about 46,000 acres, under irrigation, of
<br />which over 75 percent is irrigated from groundwater wells. In addition
<br />to metropolitan Denver, the prinCipal towns situated in the valley of
<br />the South Platte River are Fort Lupton, Greeley, Brush, Sterling,
<br />Julesburg in Colorado, and Ogallala and Noz1h Platte in Nebraska.
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