In April, Woodmen Hills resident Ron Pace asked the Woodmen Hills Metropolitan District Board if the district is pumping its wells at 100 percent capacity and using all the water itís allowed.Pace said he had a bone to pick with the district if they were pumping ìonly 70 percent of the waterî allowed, but he quickly left the meeting before hearing the boardís answer.Board member Robert Lovato said it wouldn’t be responsible to use the 1,300-acre feet of water available to the district, just because the water is there. ìWe should be conserving as much as possible,î Lovato said.Whether the district is using its maximum amount of water is not the issue, said general manager Larry Bishop. ìThe issue is we’re mining a Denver basin aquifer,î Bishop said.ìI cannot tell you the aquifer is going to go dry tomorrow. No one in this state can. No one in this country can. No one on this planet can. They can’t tell you if it’s going to go dry in 20 years. We just don’t know.ìWe do know the aquifer doesn’t recharge. We do know our wells drop 10 to 20 feet a year.ìThe boys in the center of the Denver Basin aquifers with the big straws ñ the 300-700-and 800-gallon-per-minute wells ñ are drawing the water. We’re on the edge, and we’ll be the first to go dry.îBishop said the district plan has always been to replace at least 50 percent of the Denver Basin aquifer water they use with a renewable water supply.ìRenewable supplies are alluvial aquifers that recharge every year ñ or they are rivers,î he said. ìThe nearest river to this district is the Arkansas River. It is over-appropriated. There is no water in it for Woodmen Hills.îOne solution is to pipe water from the Flaming Gorge in Wyoming down Interstate 25 ñ a multi-billion-dollar project that’s 40 to 50 years out, Bishop said.As general manager, Bishop said it is his job to find a renewable water supply and conserve the current supply. ìI have been preaching since the day I got here that we are short on water,î he said.Neither the state nor the Upper Black Squirrel Groundwater Management District has the authority to impose water conservation on the district; itís up to the district, Bishop added.ìThere has been a certain element within the district that absolutely refuses to believe we are short on water,î he said. ìThere is a belief we have enough water because the developer made the statement ‘we have enough water for build-out.’ìWe have enough water for build-out, but it’s Denver Basin aquifer water. And, at some point, instead of costing a million dollars to drill an Arapahoe well, which it costs now to drill and equip, it’s going to cost $4 million. Instead of pumping an Arapahoe well at 30 gallons per minute, which we do now, it will only pump at 10 gallons per minute.îBishop said economically it doesnít make sense to pay millions for a 10-gallon-per-minute well.He said he is negotiating with several water suppliers and hopes to bring a draft letter of intent to the board for consideration for the near future.Board member Keith Moultin said a new river basin study estimates an 8 to 20 percent decrease in water levels in Colorado over the next few years.ìWater is very complicated, and just making an irrational statement can really take you down the wrong path,î Moultin said.ìWe’re in a drought, and water restrictions may become more stringent depending on our well production.îìAt this point, I’m not pessimistic about it,î Bishop said. ìI think we’ll meet our summer demands pretty easily right now.î
