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<br />. <br /> <br />000160 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />H. Need for Auqrnented Planninq <br /> <br />(1) Crucial nature or immediacy of water and related <br />land resources problems. <br /> <br />Explosive growth rates and associated land development <br />have heightened the necessity for land utilization legislation <br />and the interdependency of water resources and related land uses. <br />Recent Colorado legislation concering the establishment of <br />minimum stream flows for environmental protection is a response to <br />this awareness. <br /> <br />Water resources planning ,is further complicated ,due ,to <br />significant physical and institutional constraints. Colorado <br />receives little surface water resources from outside the state <br />and is the origin for major streams that serve eighteen other <br />states. It is estimated that some 90 million acre-feet per year <br />falls as precipitation; however, only 15.9 million acre-feet occurs <br />as runoff and is available for use. Co~orado is compelled by virtue <br />of court decisions, treaties, and interstate compacts to deliver <br />more than 50 percent of the total 'runoff to other states, limiting <br />Colorado to about 7.2 million acre-feet per year. <br /> <br />The salinity problems of the Colorado River have reached <br />international significance due to intensive agricultural use and <br />reuse of the water throughout its course. Water diversion from <br />the Western Slope to the Eastern Slope metropolitan corridor has <br />intensified these problems. Colorado and other states are exploring <br />the salinity problems of the Colorado River Basin, and the Board is <br />actively engaged in seeking salinity control measures on the irri- <br />gation systems in the Grand Valley area. <br /> <br />A suit has been filed against the state of Colorado by <br />Texas and New Mexico in the U. S. Supreme Court due to alleged <br />failure of Colorado to fulfill Rio Grande Compact commitments. The <br />suit is inactive under prior stipulation since Colorado is presently <br />making those commitments from ground water supplies. The Closed <br />Basin Project is designed to insure Compact deliveries and was <br />authorized by Congress in 1972; however, the necessary funds have <br />not been appropriated. <br /> <br />The Arkansas and South Platte River Basins are highly agri- <br />culturalized and the water is overappropriated. Water shortages <br />and overappropriation have intensified ground water use. The Board, <br />in cooperation with other water-oriented agencies, is conducting <br />studies on the conjunctive use problems in these areas to, hopefully, <br /> <br />6 <br />