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riculturalists who, for adequate consideration, were willing to transfer all or portions of their allotment contracts to the competing users. Pressures on the District Board for supplying water services were not con- fined to the District area itself. By statute, the Board is precluded from allo- cating water to users outside the boundaries of the District. However, the statutes also permit the Board to exercise its own judgment and discretion in allowing the inclusion of additional lands within the District boundaries. By petitions for inclusion, requests to become a part of the District flowed to the board from agricultural lands, rural domestic distributors, and municipaljties lying beyond the District's borders. To guard against dilution of benefits to the water allottees and taxpayers who had been a part of the original District, the Board adopted stringent inclusion policies in the spring of 1966. By amend- ment in the fall of 1971, that policy was tightened further so that the only additions to District area in the future will arise from annexations to muni- cipalities that are existing water allottee customers of the District. Throughout the period of full project operation, the District board and staff have dealt with a wide variety of matters at the local, state, and national levels. The basic considerations, regardless of level, have been continuously aimed toward protection of the rights and interests of the citizens of the District. One primary goal has been and continues to be, the achievement of an efficient and effective integration of project operations with the operations of many ditch and reservoir companies, municipalities, and rural domestic distributors that receive supplemental water delivery services from the District. A few summarizing statistics may help to put into perspective the results which have come to Northeastern Colorado from the $162,000,000 total investment in the Colorado.Big Thompson Project. The availability of supple- mental and stabilizing water supply has been a basic contributing factor in the production of agricultural cash crop values totaling $1,616,486,000 over a 16-year period beginning in 1958. In 1973 alone, cash value of crops produced within the District reached $169,124,000, or $7,000,0.00 more than the total project investment. Additionally, the value of livestock fed within the District and marketed for slaughter in 1973, amounted to nearly $800,000,000. Although, perhaps, not fully recognizable to the newer resi- dents of the South Platte Valley, agriculture continues to be a major economic base within the area. Indeed, any industry which produces at the rate of close to a billion dollars in one year, is an important base to any area. The water supply of the South Platte River and its tributaries, which flow into the District area, averages about 850,000 acre-feet per year. Hence, over the past 20 years, native water supplies would have totalled about 17.0 mil- lion acre-feet. Within the same period, project importations amounted to 4.64 million acre-feet, or a supplementation of native supplies by about 28% per annum. Also, as those imported waters passed through the hydroelectric generators of the Bureau of Reclamation, they produced over $25,000,000 of net power revenue to the United States. WHAT IS THE DISTRICT PRESENTLY DOING? In the process of describing the District's purposes, obligations, and func- tions, many of its .recurring annual operations are thereby described. Clearly, the prime purpose of providing supplemental water supplies for agricultural, '00- 00_ 00_ ,,- 00- IRRIGATION Ilncludlng MUlti'Pu,posel ,,- ,,- 00- "'- 00- Supplemental water being applied to a field of sugar beets ,- ,. 195758 59 60 61 MUNICIPAL, DOMESTIC PROJECT WATER DELIVERIES