WSP03978

• File Number: 8040.800
• Description: General Water Policies
• State: CO
• Date: 5/25/1971
• Author: Felix Sparks
• Title: Policies, Problems and Prospects for Domestic Water Supply in Colorado Cities
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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.J:n addition to the problem of city policies and

procedures, there are physical, financial and political factors

which make it ~ifficult for any city to increase its water

supplies. Foremost among these factors is the geographical

relationship bebleen the available water supplies and t11e bulk 0;.

tile urban population. Over sixty percent of t..'1e total population

of this state resides in the South Platte valley. However, tne

n,SouLh P1.atte River and its tributaries produce less than ten pe:c-

cent of the state's total surface water. The Colorado River, on

the other hand, produces alw~st seventy percent of ~'1e total

surface water resources of the state, with less than ten percent

of the total popUlation.

The disparity between population and \'later availability

always prompts the statement that people should move \vhere the

water is. I have not yet become acquainted with anyone in the

water p1anning field that knows how to get this job done. Con-

sequent1y, we always file that solution away for future action.

When we speak of supporting an urban population many times

greater than now exists, the maximum number cannot be supported

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from the available water supplies without a much greater disperse-

ment of the urban population than now exists. This is not too

likely to occur.

Even today there is great competition between agri-

cultural and municipal uses of water, not to mention the

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