![]() ![]() In some areas of California, an acre-foot can supply three or even six households each year. In some communities, one acre-foot can go further than it has in the past. These factors differ geographically and have changed over time. The comparison depends on factors like the number of people living in a household, the type of landscaping, and the efficiency of a home’s water infrastructure and appliances. Water managers have estimated that one acre-foot supplies the indoor and outdoor water needs of about two typical urban households for a year. One acre-foot of water equals about 326,000 gallons. It equals the amount of water it takes to cover one acre, about the size of a football field, in one foot of water. What is an acre-foot?Īn acre-foot is a unit of volume. The Front Range takes over 500,000 acre-feet annually from transmountain diversions. Cities and towns short on water have looked to the Western Slope as a potential source, which has long been the crux of simmering west-east conflicts over water in Colorado. Water managers rely on a network of pumps, reservoirs, tunnels and ditches to store and move water around the state. ![]() However, nearly 90% of Coloradans live on the eastern side of the Divide. This is why water managers are often on pins and needles each winter and spring as they wait to see what the year’s precipitation - and thus the state’s water supply - looks like.Ībout 80% of the state’s water ends up in rivers and streams on the western side of the Continental Divide, a continuous ridge of mountain summits that separates river systems and splits the state roughly in half from north to south. The supply of surface water varies widely across the state and from year to year. ![]() If the basin’s full allocation of 7.5 million acre-feet of water was put to use, Colorado would receive about 3.85 million acre-feet of water. Each year, Colorado can use up to 51.75% of the river’s available water supply for the Upper Basin states. How much water does Colorado get from the Colorado River? Here's how Colorado uses its water amid climate change Close ![]()
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