The Black Squirrel alluvial aquifer extends from Black Forest to just south of Ellicot. The east to west boundaries coincide with the water shed boundaries of Black Squirrel Creek. How much water is left in the aquifer is the big question.Mike Wireman is the president of Granite Ridge Groundwater LLC in Denver and a hydrogeologist consultant for the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Ground Water Management District. He said he advises them on issues such as groundwater resources, water rights, state laws and more.Wireman said the Black Squirrel alluvial aquifer has continually been the subject of hydrogeology research. ìThe Colorado Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey have done a lot of work there, so they know that aquifer very well,î Wireman said. ìThey know its boundaries, thickness and roughly how much water is in it.îAround the 1990s, people began to realize they were taking too much water out of the aquifer, he said. The Colorado Ground Water Commission and the Black Squirrel Ground Water Management District put a number of regulations in place to limit the amount being taken out of the wells. ìThereís still a lot of water, but the amount that was used from the 1960s to the 90s, most of that for sod farms, is gone for good,î Wireman said.Regulations have helped, but at present there are two issues that continue to add to the problem, he said. One is water sources for new development. Meridian Service Metropolitan District, Woodman Hills Metro District and Cherokee Metropolitan District have rights to take water out of the aquifer. Wireman said all the water in the aquifer is claimed, which means any new development needs to find water elsewhere.Underlying the alluvial aquifer is the Denver Basin aquifer system, which consists of four aquifers: the Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe and Laramie-Fox Hills. The law that governs the use of that water, Senate Bill 5, regulates how much water can be taken out of each of those aquifers, he said. ìThatís called determination of water rights,î Wireman said. ìThe second issue is the state is not monitoring the bedrock aquifers in an adequate way to determine if the laws and regulations they have in place are working. We donít know if the water being used is going to dry up those aquifers in 20 years, instead of 100 or 300 years.îColorado passed a regulation in 2018 called the Aquifer Storage-and-Recovery Plan (HB18-1199). He said this means any of the metropolitan districts can bring water from another source, store it in the alluvial aquifer and take it out as needed, instead of building a reservoir. ìThat makes some sense; you donít have to build a reservoir, you donít have to deal with evaporation problems,î Wireman said. ìWhat theyíre ignoring, and we hydrogeologists have told them many times, is the chemistry of the water that youíre bringing in is likely to be very different from the chemistry of the water in that aquifer.î He said that means there is a risk of a chemical reaction between the two waters because of incompatibility.ìThe Upper Black Squirrel Creek Ground Water Management District has taken matters into their own hands to deal with all the water issues,î Wireman said. They hired the U.S. Geological Survey to measure water levels for the next few years; eventually that monitoring will be turned over to the management district. Wireman said he also designed a program to monitor 30 bedrock wells within the Black Squirrel management district starting this summer; plus, they have been monitoring 50 other wells in the alluvial aquifer for some time. They measure not just water levels, but water quality.Jim Nikkel, general manager of Meridian Service Metropolitan District, said they have water rights to the four aquifers, however; they donít take water from all four.He said at present there are about 2,600 residences in their metropolitan district, which covers an area of about 4 square miles. Nikkel said the amount of water used varies by household.Water conservation is encouraged and discussed in their newsletters and website. He said what has been most effective is their multi-tiered system; the more water used, the more one pays for that water. ìItís that economic hit to the pocketbook that gets peopleís attention the most,î he said.ìWhether you get your water from groundwater or surface water, water is a precious resource; and itís something we should always be cognizant of our use of it.îDave Doran, board of director president for the Upper Black Squirrel Creek Ground Water Management District, said one of their biggest concerns is inadequate monitoring of the water quality. ìWe wanted a baseline to make sure there wasnít contamination to some of the most pristine water in the state,î Doran said.In 2009, they were able to put a water quality study in place; the U.S. Geological Survey has been conducting those studies. ìThey test for all sorts of different constituents; some being very expensive to test for and sometimes controversial, but they test the gamut of what they believe might be a concern in the future,î Doran said.He said to move forward with new development, the state engineer office must provide a water sufficiency report. ìFor about 20 years, the state has added a disclaimer at the bottom of the letter that says they donít advise using the Denver basin water and recommend finding a renewable source of water,î Doran said. ìSo if the state is not guaranteeing the water will last 100 years, how can the county calculate it to last 300 years?îDoran said the USGS is also studying the water levels of the Denver basin aquifers. Their impetus for the study is the 300-year county rule. ìSo far all of those levels have been on paper; we want real scientific data,î he said.
