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, .... ~y:) (j 'J Report to LUC Narrows Project Jim Ohi Page 5 4. The indirect, or secondary, socio-economic and land- use impacts of the project, particularly the intensive recreational uses planned, could.have significant effects on the "shoreline" area of the proposed reservoir. Already, Morgan County officials have had applications for land use changes in and near the "take" area of the project, and are considering the use of H.B. 1041 provisions to control this pressure for land-use changes. 5. The impact on agricultural productivity may affect a much larger area of northeast Colorado than just the Weldon Valley if project irrigation water is converted to "indus- trial, power, and municipal" uses as provided for in the conditional decree. 6. The relationship of the Narrows project to the proposed Pawnee power plant -- the cumulative impacts of these two large projects have potentially enormous consequences for economic development and land use in northeast Colorado. 7. The beneficiaries of the project -- we should know as much about the beneficiaries as we do about those who will be displaced by the project and whether the project will actually benefit family farming as claimed by the USBR. I will now discuss the long-term state policy consideration implicit in the project. 1. Long-term protection of highly productive agricultural lands -- according to the State Department of Agriculture, "Pressures upon Colorado's agricultural lands are steadily increasing. Highly productive land is not in great supply in our state, and we must weigh very carefully the trade offs in a project of such magnitude as the Narrows." 2. The need for a basinwide plan for the best use and management of our scarce air, water and agricultural resources in the South Platte basin -- the Narrows is not simply a problem of flooding one valley to provide irrigation water farther down the basin. For example, the flood control and recreation aspects of the project are closely related to the patterns of urbanization along the Front Range. We must begin to examine our "tradeoffs" in terms of total resource management. Watersheds, acquifers, air sheds, soil associations, etc., are discernable natural units which, along with processes associated with these units, must be respected in our decision-making process.