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Metropolitan Water Suppl y Investigation Proposal Hydrosphere, Inc. Septmber 17, 1993 Page 33 implementation of cooperative solutions by providing the necessary state-wide coordination, by offering the technical expenise available within state agencies, by assuring that water rights are protected and the responsibilities of local government are respected, by providing financial suppon, and by helping to develop the data and information systems that are necessary for making informed decisions. Prior 10 the conference, the Depanment of Natural Resources retained Hydrosphere to provide an overview of water supply alternatives available to the Denver metropolitan area. A draft of that study was completed in September of 1992 and provided a survey of the issues and concerns that must be addressed in the context of many water supply options including: (I) large and small water supply slOrage and development projects; (2) conversion of agricultural water rights to municipal use; (3) improvements in the efficiency of water use; (4) integrated operations of existing storage and delivery systems and (5) enhanced information based solutions. Based upon discussions between participants at the State Convention and consideration by the Colorado Water Conservation Board, three water supply opponunities have initially emerged which appear to have the greatest shon-term potential in terms of technical feasibility and significant yield and for promoting cooperative and mutually beneficial relationships between municipal water suppliers, agricultural water users and other interested parties. These three "targeted opponunities" include some version of the Barr Lake Plan, the "Southern Water Supply Project" proposed by the Nonhern Colorado Water Conservancy District and the conjunctive use of non-tributary Denver Basin groundwater with surface water supply systems. The concepts underlying each of these proposals involve the use and integration of existing highly developed and refined water supply systems. While these systems integration opponunities have been acknowledged to be conceptually feasible, very little is known about what they will yield, what new facilities would be required, how they would operate, and who would benefit. However, a great deal of information is available about the individual systems that would be involved in or affected by these proposals and considerable expenise is available regarding the operation and management of the individual water supply systems. A critical element in this study will involve "a technically facilitated planning process" to encourage the coordinated and cooperative use of this existing information and expenise. An additional critical component of this study will be its relationship with other ongoing related studies and planning processes. The Metro Wastewater Reclamation District is engaged in extensive effluent management studies that include the analysis of water management options closely related to the proposed Barr Lake Plan. The Denver Water Department is in the process of developing a raw water supply planning model for the Denver system to be used as a tool for evaluation of new water supply sources and system management alternatives. The City of Aurora and organizations comprising the Arapahoe County Water Authority are involved in extensive studies of non-tributary groundwater resources which include investigations of recharge potential in cenain areas. Each of these efforts is well designed to address problems or objectives for the individual sponsoring agencies, and each study could potentially contribute unique information to a systems integration study. Of these efforts, the Denver Water modeling/planning project is the most far reaching and ambitious, and has the potential to significantly explore system integration opponunities. However, none of these studies are properly scoped to address the entire subject area from a metro area-wide or state-wide perspective.