FLOOD02847

• County: Statewide
• Community: State
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Metropolitan Water Supply Investigation Final Report
• Date: 1/1/1999
• Prepared For: CWCB
• Prepared By: Hydrosphere Resource Consultants, Inc.
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Flood Mitigation/Flood Warning/Watershed Restoration

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Metropolitan Water Supply Investigation

Executive Summary

The Northwest Metro Sub-rel!ion includes Arvada, Broomfield, the Consolidated
Mutual Water Company, Golden, Northglenn, Westminster and other small providers in
the Clear Creek basin. The water supply sources currently available to this sub-region
consist primarily of Clear Creek municipal rights and changed irrigation rights and partial
service contracts with Denver Water, which are mostly satisfied via deliveries from the
Moffat Tunnel Collection System.

The long-term water demands for this sub-region are projected to be about 100,000 acre-
feet per year. Most of the sub-region's projected increase in water demand is associated
with anticipated growth in Arvada and Broomfield. Providers in this sub-region have
plans in place to meet about 90,000 acre-feet of this need. Cooperative planning efforts
for meeting the remaining 10,000 acre-feet of need in this sub-region are focused upon
coordinated use and sharing of existing or new storage and conveyance facilities and
expanded reuse.

Within each of these sub-regions, cooperative water supply approaches could play an
important role in meeting future water supply needs in a manner that could potentially
reduce the costs and environmental permitting risks associated with other options.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. It is recommended that a continuing state-sponsored cooperative supply planning
forum be established.

The MWSI has improved communication, mutual understanding and cooperation
between metro Denver area water providers, West Slope interests and environmental
interests. Is has resulted in several ongoing collaborative studies which are designed to
increase water supplies in mutually acceptable ways. It has also had a major effect upon
other ongoing planning efforts addressing issues of critical importance to the metro
Denver area's water supplies. These include:

.. Quadrant investigations of various cooperative water supply opportunities
. The Platte River Cooperative Agreement and EIS process
. The Upper Colorado River Basin Study
. The Colorado River Endangered Fish Specie5 Water Availability Study
. The Chatfield Reservoir Reallocation Feasibility Study
. The USFS's South Platte Wild & Scenic Study and associated negotiations.
. The Northern Regional Water Coalition's investigation oflong-term future M&I
water needs of the Northern Front Range

These studies and planning efforts are proceeding independently, but are highly
interrelated and deal with complex issues that affect numerous parties. It is therefore
recommended that a continuing state-sponsored forum be established to serve the
following functions:

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Prepared for the Colorado WatcrConservation Board, Colorado Department of Natural Resources by
Hydrosphere Resource Consullants. 1002 Walnut Str..~ Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302