WSP02594

• File Number: 8407
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 9/1/1982
• Author: Arthur D Little Inc
• Title: Six State High Plains-Ogallala Aquifer Regional Resources Study - Interbasin Water Transfer Assessments
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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CHAPTER THREE
WATER TRANSFER PLANNING CONSIDERATIONS

A variety of information needs were identified in the early stages of
study design for the interbasin water transfer assessments. An appropriate
allocation and assignment of responsibility among the study participants was
made, as outlined previously. This chapter describes in more detail some of
the more important information capabilities and results which went into the
final analysis of water transfer alternatives.

WATER AVAILABILITY

The estimation of the availability of water from the source basins
selected by the High Plains Study Council, in consultation with the Corps
and the General Contactor, was a process of allocating a scarce resource
between in-basin requirements and export needs. The policy for interbasin
water transfer was set by the Council in Resolution 6, as presented in
Chapter Two. That Resolution prescribes that the states in basins of ori-
gin, both upstream and downstream of designated diversion points, have prior
rights in perpetuity for beneficial uses of the source streams. Only waters
considered as surplus to in-basin uses over time were estimated as available
for export.

Any ultimate decisions regarding future water transfer plans would be
made jointly by both exporting and importing states, in cooperation with the
U. S. Congress. The range of water transfer quant iti es assumed for each
alternative routing does not imply that those quantities are in fact
available for export. The ranges of quantities were determined based upon
estimates by the individual states of water needed to restore to irrigation
those 1 ands goi ng out of i rri gated producti on, due to physi calor economi c
exhausti on of Oga 11 al a ground water resources by the study peri ods 2000 and
2020 respectively, for selected alternative water management strategies.

The basis for allocation of water among the importing states, and the
acreages in each state to be restored to i rri gati on from imported water