On Nov. 6, Protect Our Wells President Fred Herman and Hydrogeologist Julia Murphy presented, “Is your water supply at risk?” “Obviously we think it is, or we wouldn’t be giving a presentation with that title,” Herman said.”How many of you think the county or state has a long-term plan for protecting our wells?”The lack of local government involvement in water issues was the impetus for starting POW. According to its Web site, Protect Our Wells is a nonprofit citizen-based organization advocating the interests of private well owners in the Denver Basin. Members educate the public about water issues in El Paso County, attend state and county meetings and intend to develop a well monitoring system to determine the current state of the Dawson and Denver aquifers.The bedrock aquifers and water from the Upper Black Squirrel alluvial aquifer are the main water supply for the majority of wells in Falcon and the Black Forest, Murphy said.Herman said wells drilled in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers are using a non-renewable water supply because it takes thousands of years for rainfall or snowmelt to replenish those aquifers. As wells are pumped the water supply is depleted.Precipitation can recharge the Upper Black Squirrel aquifer “but it is being mined because water is being extracted at a far greater rate than it is being replenished, especially during drought years,” Herman said. He cited a study from the state engineer’s office, and Murphy showed a chart of actual well level declines in the Upper Black Squirrel as proof.”There really isn’t a very good barrier between the Upper Black Squirrel alluvial and Dawson and Denver bedrock aquifers,” Murphy said. Over pumping in either the alluvial or bedrock aquifers, in the area where the two intersect, can affect wells in both layers. She said other states limit the amount of water extracted from an alluvial aquifer to the amount of recharge the aquifer gets through precipitation, but it is not done in this area. Therefore, if pumping is not decreased in the Upper Black Squirrel, “small well owners will have a very serious problem,” she said.Over-pumping also is a problem in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers. Herman said Douglas County has a far greater problem than El Paso County because wells in the Arapahoe aquifer, normally used to supply large subdivisions, have dropped by as much as 30 feet. But Murphy said the developer of the Black Forest Reserve subdivision, off Meridian Road, found an insufficient amount of water when they attempted to develop a municipal water system using Arapahoe wells. The developer was forced to decrease the number of houses and use individual private wells drilled into the Dawson aquifer.Murphy said she thinks state officials are using a flawed formula to determine how much water is available in the Denver Basin. Specific yield, the amount of water that can be extracted from saturated sediments in an aquifer, is one factor in their formula, which is affected by the amount of pressure an aquifer is under. Pumping may reduce that pressure. She said the state’s specific yield figures were proven to be overestimated by at least 30 percent in the recent Kiowa-Core drilling project. The state still has not adjusted its formula, increasing the chance developers will build subdivisions without adequate water supply.Herman said the only solution to the area’s impending water problems is to find a renewable source of water and develop a system to distribute the water. But the Southern Delivery System, a renewable water supply being developed by Colorado Springs, will not provide one drop of water to the county. For now, drilling deeper wells or having water trucked in is the only answer if a private well fails.To avoid future well problems, Herman urged people to join Protect Our Wells. “In order to gain political clout POW needs at least a thousand members,” he said. A large organization can get their message to state and local official better than individuals can, and Herman said he believes the people must unite to protect current water supplies and to push for a renewable water system.Learn more about Protect Our Wells at www.protectourwells.org. To join POW call Sandra Martin at 351-1640.
