WSP01596

• File Number: 8449
• Description: Platte River Studies
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Date: 1/1/1957
• Author: RM Gilderstern/CWCB
• Title: South Platte River Basin Water Supply
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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SOUTH PLA'I'l'E RIVER BASIN WATER SUPPLY

by
R. M. Gildersleeve, Chief Engineer
Ivan C. Crawford, Director
Colorado Water Conservation Board

This basin, by far the rnost populous in the State of Colorado, is cornposed'
of 19,022 square miles of land area of which twenty-three percent is abave 8,700 feet
in elevation according to U. S. Engineers Report. on Flood Control, South Platte River
and Tributaries, 1954. The riJn of the basin goes up to 14,000 feet above sea level.
Fifty-four percent of the total area is above the 6,000 foot contour. It contains
18.4 percent of the total land area of the State of Colorado.
The 1950 census says that there are 800,000 people, or sixty percent of
the population of the State, in this basin. Since that date the area has experienced
a greater growth in population than any other basin in the State.
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From studies rnade in the office of the Colorado Water Conservation Board,

the irrigated area in this water shed rnay be divided into the following sub-groups

which contain a total of 1,220,000 acres of irrigated land:

TABlE I

Irrigated area:

a. South Park
b. Main stern above Denver (WD8)
c. Main stern Derner-Kersey (WD2)
d. Main stern Kersey-Balzac (WD1)
e. Main stern Balzac-Ju1esburg (\JD64)
f. Bear, Clear, St. Vrain, Boulder, Big
Thompson &< Cache La Poudre

45,000
22,000
210,000
177,000
155 ,000

611.000

Total for Basin

1,220,000 acree

This vast area secures its water supply largely frorn the melted snows of

the Front Range mountains and of the Park Range which is the westernmost boundary.