On April 26, the El Paso County Groundwater Quality Study Committee held a public forum at Falcon High School to discuss the results of their study of alluvial groundwater quality in the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Groundwater Basin.The basin provides drinking water for everyone living in the basin, including Falcon.”The conclusion is that the water is of good quality,” said Ralph Topper, senior hydro-geologist for the Colorado Geological Survey. “It’s very suitable for the uses it’s currently being put to – agricultural irrigation and drinking water supply.”The committee directed Topper and his assistant, Andy Horn, to gather and analyze existing data and look for a correlation between septic systems and nitrate levels in groundwater.Topper found and analyzed 150 laboratory results taken over a 55-year period from 72 alluvial wells in the basin.None of the laboratory results were from wells in the Falcon area – the area in the basin with the highest septic system density.Although the basin’s alluvial groundwater is good quality, the data also shows that nitrate values of 5 milligrams per liter are not uncommon, Topper said. While nitrate levels don’t pose a health threat now, they are higher than the 2 milligrams per liter that would be expected in a native aquifer, he said.”With 1,300 alluvial wells in the basin, we really need additional study to understand the impact of current and future land use on groundwater quality,” Topper said.Kathy Hare, former president of the Upper Black Squirrel Groundwater Management District board, said there’s a strong need to set up a testing program to gather new data.The alluvial and Denver Basin aquifers are probably supplying water to 40,000 people, Hare said. “If you had a reservoir that supplied 40,000 people, it would be very simple to test it. Unfortunately, that’s not the situation here,” she said.”We need continual testing in the Falcon area, below where Paintbrush Hills and Woodmen Hills wastewater treatment plants discharge. The effluent eventually ends up in Upper Black.”For the second phase of the study, Topper wants to retest 12 of the 72 wells’ laboratory results analyzed in the study’s first phase.He also wants to collect data from wells in eight locations near Falcon and Peyton, where currently there is no data at all.Some of the locations are downgrade of areas where there is already a high density of septic systems or there is likely to be a high density in the future, and most are located near surface water confluences, Topper said.Drilling eight monitoring wells would cost $5,000 each, said Sean Chambers, committee member and general manager of the Cherokee Metropolitan District.A second phase of the study could be less expensive and more quickly approved by the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners if homeowners within the eight locations are willing to have their wells tested on a regular basis, Topper said.Jerry Novak, committee chairman, said his experience in the real estate industry shows that some people are afraid to test their water. “You might find something you don’t like, and you’re obligated to disclose it if you sell your property,” Novak said.Water providers, such as the Woodmen Hills and Cherokee metropolitan districts, are required by the Colorado Department of Health to test and treat their water, but private well owners are not required to test, Topper said.Committee member Charles Barber said he knows of only two laboratories in the United States that test water for volatile organic compounds, such as those found in petroleum products, and they only test for businesses – not private well owners – at a cost of $1,000 per test.”If you’re concerned about your water, a small and inexpensive solution is to run it through a granulated, activated carbon filter as the first stage and a carbon block filter as a second stage,” Barber said.Novak said the committee will continue to scope out a second phase of the study and consider other cost savings, such as using water providers’ labs to analyze samples. They will present a plan to the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners so they can act on it this year.Commissioner Amy Lathen encouraged the audience to comment on the study’s results and the need for a second phase.The first phase results are located at https://elpasoco.com/All_offices.asp. Click the “Development Services” link and then the “Studies, Plans & Manuals” link. Click the “Groundwater Quality Study Phase 1” link to download the study.
