Filling The Gap: Front Range (2011)
Downloads:
Filling The Gap: Arkansas Basin
Downloads:
Acceptable Planned Projects
Filling the Gap Report
Front Range water providers are pursuing a wide range of water supply development options, such as more fully exercising existing water rights, building new pipelines, enlarging reservoirs, and transferring water from agriculture. This section identifies the specific projects that Front Range communities are planning that Western Resource Advocates, Trout Unlimited, and the Colorado Environmental Coalition could accept, if designed and implemented pursuant to our "smart" principles. We call these projects Acceptable Planned Projects (APPs). We estimate that APPs can provide 102,000 acre-feet of additional water supply annually by 2050.
Figure 5: Estimate of Front Range Needs Including the Acceptable Planned Projects Strategy.
APPs could collectively produce approximately 102,000 acre-feet of new water supply annually by 2050. 
Energy Requirements for New Structural Water Supply Options.
The water supply strategies Colorado chooses to pursue come with large implications for energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Energy is used to pump, treat, distribute, and heat water, as well as to treat and discharge wastewater. The energy intensity of Colorado's water supplies, or the energy embedded in each acre-foot of water delivered for use, varies considerably across the Front Range. Cities, such as Denver and Fort Collins, that rely on high-quality, gravity-fed supplies use very little energy to supply customers with water. But many south Denver metro area cities use tremendous amounts of energy to pump water from deep Denver Basin aquifers. New supply projects, such as Colorado Springs' Southern Delivery System, will rival the most energy-intensive water supplies in the West today. Water supplied via conservation and efficiency uses no energy and actually saves energy in many cases.
Acceptable Planned Projects
| Project Name (Beneficiary) |
Potential Yield (AF/year) |
Description | Issues To Be Resolved |
|---|---|---|---|
Reservoirs |
|||
| Chatfield Reservoir Reallocation (several central South Platte water suppliers) |
8,000 | Modify recreational facilities; reallocate 20,600 AF of storage from flood control to urban, agricultural, and instream uses. | Assess and minimize impacts of reservoir fluctuation on recreational facilities, wetlands, and bird habitats. |
| Gross Reservoir Enlargement (Denver Water) | 18,000 | Increase storage in existing reservoir by 72,000 AF. | Implement urban efficiency measures first. Adopt adequate, enforceable measures to protect/restore affected upper Colorado River Basin streams, and South Boulder Creek water quality and flows. |
| Halligan Reservoir Enlargement (Fort Collins) | 7,000 | Increase storage in existing reservoir by 33,500 AF. | Implement urban efficiency measures first. Protect/restore N. Fork Poudre and Poudre River water quality and flows. |
| Rueter-Hess Reservoir Enlargement(Parker and other south Denver metro area providers) | 15,000 | Increase storage in existing reservoir by 54,000 AF. | Maximize use of in-basin surface water supplies, reuse, and conservation savings. |
| Seaman Reservoir Enlargement (Greeley) | 10,000 | Increase storage in existing reservoir by 38,000 AF. | Implement urban efficiency measures first. Protect/restore N. Fork Poudre and Poudre River water quality and flows. |
| Windy Gap Firming Project (Municipal Subdistrict of Northern Water) |
32,000 (depends on “pre-positioning”) |
Construct new reservoir at Chimney Hollow to ensure reliable supplies of Windy Gap water. | Implement urban efficiency measures first. Adopt adequate, enforceable measures to protect/restore affected upper Colorado River Basin flows. |
| Northern Project Pipeline, Phase II+ (East Cherry Creek Valley WSD, south Denver metro area providers) |
5,000 | Purchase of additional water rights and construction of reverse osmosis treatment plant. | Brine disposal. Assess and minimize potential impacts to stream flows and water quality. |
| South Platte and Beebe Draw Aquifer Recharge Project (Brighton) |
7,000 | Use Beebe Draw alluvium for storage, with pipeline and treatment for delivery of potable water. | Assess and minimize potential impacts to stream flows and water quality. |
| Total | 102,000 | ||
Reuse |
|||
| Prairie Waters Project [PWP] (Aurora) |
10,000 (ultimate capacity of 50,000 if and when needed) | Thirty-four-mile pipeline capturing reusable water rights, junior South Platte water rights, and agricultural water rights. | Brine disposal. Assess and minimize potential impacts to stream flows and water quality. |
| WISE Partnership (Denver Water [DW], Aurora, south Denver metro area providers) |
10,000 (up to 18,000 with full build-out of PWP) | Uses PWP to capture DWÕs reusable transbasin return flows when capacity is available; water delivered in most years to south Denver metro area providers. | Brine disposal. Assess and minimize potential impacts to stream flows and water quality. DW must have agreement with Aurora about when capacity is available. |