Terry Stokka has lived in Black Forest for 29 years. He is president of the Friends of Black Forest, chairman of the Black Forest Land Use Committee and chairman of the Black Forest Water & Wells Committee.
County commissioners receive water report
By Terry Stokka
In late October, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners heard a report from Bruce Lytle of Moore Engineering regarding the status and condition of the Denver Basin aquifers in El Paso County. The study was commissioned in mid-2024, and the result was a 79-page report to the commissioners. The report contained no dramatic discoveries or conclusions and told the commissioners that the Denver Basin is largely unchanged and that they should continue with the current water policies in place. The only significant water policy at this time is the 300-year rule regarding water allocation.
Back in 1974, the Colorado Division of Water Resources decided that water should not be extracted from the Denver Basin at a rate larger than 1% per year, meaning the aquifer would be pumped dry in 100 years, according to their models. We are 50 years — halfway — into that 100-year span, and the aquifers continue to be strong in most areas. The assumptions that led to that decision are shaky at best since we really don’t know much about what is under the ground in these aquifers.
Back in 1974, the Colorado Division of Water Resources decided that water should not be extracted from the Denver Basin at a rate larger than 1% per year, meaning the aquifer would be pumped dry in 100 years, according to their models. We are 50 years — halfway — into that 100-year span, and the aquifers continue to be strong in most areas. The assumptions that led to that decision are shaky at best since we really don’t know much about what is under the ground in these aquifers.
El Paso County decided to be more cautious and established the 300-year rule to ensure water availability from the aquifers for an additional 200 years. That rule was challenged in court but upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. Now, if a water provider or developer wants to extract water from their property, the state computes how much water is under the parcel based on its models and divides that by 100 to determine how much water can be extracted each year. El Paso County further divides that amount by three, and that is the amount of water that can be extracted from that parcel each year. That figure is further complicated by the fact that only about 60% of the water is economically recoverable because of reduced pumping rates as the well is drawn down. From the experience of water metropolitan districts, we know that a deep well into one of the deeper aquifers has a life span of about 15 to 20 years until it is no longer economical to pump from that well. Many metro districts have 10 to 15 wells in operation at any one time. New wells cost over $1 million.
The Moore Engineering report went on to say that accurate conclusions regarding the Denver Basin are difficult because of limited testing, a lack of wells for test data, and variable soils in each aquifer. They requested water data from county water entities but received data from only four of them, which also limited the conclusions in the report.
Half of the report showed test data from wells in the study. A few wells in the I-25 corridor in the northwest part of the county showed more variation; however, while some of those wells showed a small decline, a few wells showed a higher static level, which is hard to explain. Most wells were quite steady over a long period of time.
A consultant hydrogeologist representing the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Water Management District expressed concern that while the report had a great deal of data, there were no concrete conclusions that could be drawn. I couldn’t see any concrete conclusions or recommendations myself.
So, at the end of the day, the report concluded that the 300-year rule is a good thing, the Denver Basin is a finite source of water so we need to be careful, and most wells in the county don’t show a depletion of water. Even though we are extracting lots of water from the basin, with all the homes and businesses it seems there is a massive amount of water down there. I guess we can take some comfort from that, but let’s continue to use our Denver Basin water carefully.
