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.
Editor’s note: The views expressed in the content of this column belong to the writer and not the newspaper or its affiliates.
Falcon Water Authority update
By Terry Stokka
Articles in the October 2022 and April 2024 issues of The New Falcon Herald addressed the Falcon Area Water and Wastewater Authority. I would like to tag-team on those articles to provide more detailed information about this enterprise. The FAWWA has great implications for water use and distribution in Black Forest and the Falcon area.
By way of review, the FAWWA was formed in 2017 to provide water and wastewater services to several residential developments south and southeast of Black Forest. Their plan is to pipe water 17.5 miles from several sites along Hodgen Road, eastward to Meridian Road and then south and west to the large tanks and treatment facility east of Vollmer Road and south of Arroya Lane. They have obtained water rights and permission to drill on seven well sites on High Forest Ranch, 16 sites on Bar-X and Cherry Creek Estates and five sites on Winsome.
Each site permits two wells into different aquifers so they have permission for 54 wells. These wells will not be in the Dawson aquifer but will be wells in the lower aquifers 2,000 to 3,000-feet deep. The FAWWA application to the county also states that there are water rights available for sale at other ranches in the Black Forest if they need them. Long ago in the early 2000s when the land for these developments was sold, the seller sold the Dawson water rights to the developers along with the land and kept the lower aquifers for later investment. When the developments were platted, they inserted well easements in several areas on the plat so that if the water rights were sold, the new owner would have a place to drill wells. The easements are only an acre or two but if a well were to be drilled, there would be a huge commercial well-drilling rig on site and there would also be material from the drilling that would drain off the site and access would be across private property. The adjacent property owner cannot prevent access to the well easement.
The developments to be served include Sterling Ranch and TimberRidge on the east side of Vollmer, Prairie Ridge on the west side of Vollmer Road and south of Poco Road, The Ranch, which is at the south end of Raygor Road and south of Stapleton Road, and a few other smaller developments. These developments total 7,300 homes in various stages of development. By way of comparison, the entire Black Forest contains about 6,600 private wells, so this would more than double the amount of water extracted from the Denver Basin in the Black Forest. If enough water is found, there is also the possibility to serve developments in the Falcon area.
The application states, “The declining aquifer levels in the immediate Falcon area support the need for the FAWWA project.” There are not many options for water in the Falcon area except deep wells, and they have a limited life before they are not economical producers. At the cost of $1.25 million per well, metro districts in the Falcon area would like to find water available from a pipeline without having to drill new wells.
At this time, no wells have been drilled along Hodgen Road, but much work has been completed on the pipeline. Beginning at Sterling Ranch, the pipeline runs east to the power line easement and follows that most of the way up to Meridian. Much of that phase has been completed. The next phase is to continue the 24-inch pipeline westward along Hodgen Road to Black Forest Road. The FAWWA anticipates well drilling to begin in 2025 on Bar-X Ranch.
The water rights granted are quite significant. The total water rights add up to 2,149-acre-feet per year, which will supply 6,300 homes. The standard water consumption figure is .35-acre-foot per year; for an average household, that works out to 313 gallons per day. That figure would be less in the winter and more in the summer with landscape watering.
So that’s where we stand on the FAWWA at this point. Black Forest residents are concerned about such a large amount of water being pumped from the aquifers. Even though the wells are not in the Dawson aquifer, no one knows what will happen if huge amounts of water are extracted from the lower aquifers when these aquifers are not completely sealed from each other. Standby for further updates as work progresses on the project.
