WSP01414

• File Number: 8449.918
• Description: South Platte Projects
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Date: 8/1/1982
• Author: CWCB
• Title: South Platte River Basin Assessment Report
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background

The South Platte River Compact (37-65-101, Colorado Revised Statutes, 1973)

divides and apportions waters of the South platte River basin between the

States of Colorado and Nebraska. At present, Colorado does not put to

beneficial use the full amount of the waters of the South Platte River to

which it is entitled under the Compact. Thus, both public and private

interests in Colorado have been and continue to be interested in developing

additional waters for beneficial use.

While proposals for the further development of the South Platte River date

back to 1944, with the authorization of the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin

Project, the lapse of time and changing circumstances suggest that a broad

reevaluation of the opportunities for utilizing Colorado's share of the

waters of the South Platte River is needed. In recognition of this fact,

Senator Gary Hart, in 1979, proposed to then Secretary of the Interior

Cecil I\.ndrus that the U.S. Department of the Interior fund an effort

designed to assist Colorado in evaluating the alternative means by which it

might proceed to beneficially use the remaining waters of the South platte

River basin to which it is entitled.

Federal and state officials subsequently agreed that such a study would be

undertaken by the State with monies provided from the U.S. Bureau of

Reclamation's general investigation fund. To that end, the Lower Missouri

Region, u.s. Bureau of Reclamation, provided funds to the Colorado Water

Conservation Board, which, in turn, obtained the services of Woodward-Clyde

Consultants to prepare this report.

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