Alluvial Storage and Recovery in the South Platte River Basin in 
Colorado-
A Design Approach

By
William Charles McIntyre, P.E., 
PhD Candidate - Engineering and Applied Science, 
University of Colorado-Denver Dept. of Civil Engineering

Drought; the disconnect between private property and the Public 
Trust Doctrine; state agencies caught between science, uneven 
legislation and the water court process; over appropriation of a 
finite resource; the conflict between additional water storage 
structures and threatened and endangered plant and animal species; 
all shape the future of water resources engineering and public 
policy in Colorado and the American West.
  
Surface water and groundwater administration in Colorado currently 
finds itself under additional operational and institutional 
impediments.  Within the next 25 years, the current state population 
is expected to increase by 60% and climate change is predicted to 
decrease the usable water supply.  Also, current state ballot 
initiatives propose to declare the Public Trust Doctrine as the 
keystone of Colorado water resource management and allocation.  

With these new boundary conditions, Colorado must revisit its unique 
water administrative directives, its method of storing and 
conserving available water supplies, re-operating existing water 
storage facilities, and modifying the current expert witness process 
in the water courts, while concurrently accommodating the water 
needs of animal and plant species as directed by the US Federal 
government.  

This presentation will evaluate and propose engineering designs, law 
and policy initiatives, and conjunctive use reforms due to the 
impending shortages of water resources in the South Platte River 
basin of Colorado and the American West.