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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 tot&l. population (1960) in excess of 999,433. These
<br />communities ranged in size from metropolitan Denver (populatioll ~29, 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 econOlllY. Metropolitan Denver ranks as the
<br />tventy-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 this vast region. Ite leading industriee by order of
<br />rank are ~ufacturing, retail trade, wholesale trade, public utilities,
<br />service industries, construction finance, and mining. In 1960, the
<br />number ofpersone employed in the Denver metropolitan area vas 353,823.
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<br />c. Rural areas. The South Platte River basin containe approximately
<br />15.5 million acres of land and water, 12.7'mil1ion acres are in farms
<br />and ranchee of which 980,000 acres are irrigated and 11,720,000 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 productic)n and the remaining
<br />13 percent of production value reeu1 ts from dairy operations, poultry,
<br />and fru,it and truck crops. The major field crops produced are winter
<br />wheat,alfalfa, corn, barley, eugar beate, field beane, hay forage
<br />sorghum, grain sorghUlll, oats, potatoes, rye, and spring wheat. Irrigation
<br />providee the etab1e economic baee for the rural econOllly of the ballin.
<br />Irrigation eyetems have been developed from surface water and ground-
<br />water reeources. Groundwater irrigation wae developed initially in
<br />the 1930's and principally after World War II. The eurface water
<br />eupp1y averages approximately 1.4 million acre-feet annually', of which
<br />about 14 percent is imported by transmountaindiverllion. Seventy-tvo
<br />diversion syetems divert irrigation vater from the main steill. of the
<br />South Platte River. There are approximately 360,000 acree under
<br />irrigation in the South Platte River valley, about 242,000 acres in
<br />the Cache LaPoudre River valley, and 90,000 acree in the Big Thompeon
<br />River valley. The Lodgepole Creek, Crow Creek and Beaver and Badger
<br />Creek valleye canbined have about 46,000 acres, under irrigation, of '
<br />which over 75 percent ill irrigated from groundwater ve11s. In addition
<br />to metropolitan Denver, the prinCipal towns eituated in the valley of
<br />the South Platte River are Fort Lupton, Greeley, Brueh, Sterling,
<br />JuIesburg iIi COlorado, and Ogallala and North Platte in Nebraska.
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