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Study: Aquifer water levels dropping 30 feet a year
Geologists have completed one phase of The Denver Basin Project, a study on the basin's aquifers, and the result is predictable.
By By: Sean Hadden
Geologists have completed one phase of The Denver Basin Project, a study on the basin's aquifers, and the result is predictable.
Water levels are dropping significantly, by about 30 feet per year, said Bob Raynolds, geologist and Denver Museum of Nature and Science research associate.
This phase of the project was sponsored by a National Science Foundation and focused mainly on the Arapahoe aquifer which underlies the Dawson and Denver aquifers, Raynolds said.
The Parker Water and Sanitation District has also been supportive.
"They donated $50,000 to the study," Raynolds said.
He added that Parker water officials wanted to support the study to provide a clearer picture of exactly where the water lies within the different aquifer levels.
Parker gets the water it distributes to its customers from aquifer wells, Raynolds said.
The next phase of the project will focus on the Denver Aquifer and will start when the museum can obtain more grant money, said Raynolds and museum public relations manager Jim Berscheidt. They now are writing grant proposals toward that end.
"The Denver Aquifer is more uneven [than the Arapahoe Aquifer]," Raynolds said. "We know less about its distribution patterns."
The dropping water table should be of particular concern to people living in Douglas County because much of their water comes from wells that tap into Denver Basin aquifers, Raynolds said.
Inevitably, the water table will drop to a point where it will be completely contained within sandstone fan formations that comprise the aquifers, he said.
At that point, there will be water remaining in the aquifers, but it will be inaccessible.
This scenario is a long way off, but as the levels keep dropping, the cost of water will continue to rise as people using aquifer water are forced to deepen their wells, Raynolds said.
"There is not a danger of running out of water," he said. "But it is a question of how much you will be paying for the water."
People living in places liking Parker, who are supplied with aquifer water, will see their water bills rise significantly as the levels fall, Raynolds said.
A graduate student in hydrology engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden has just begun a project that will use complex computer modeling to predict how long it will be before Front Range population growth will deplete the aquifers to the unusable point, Raynolds said.
"He has just received the new data, so it will be a while [before the computer model is completed]," he said.
Aquifer fans are the layers of petrified sandstone that hold the water that people now have the benefit of using, Raynolds said.
Underground, the earth, and therefore the water in the sandstone, is under tremendously greater pressure than at the surface, he said.
It is this increased pressure that forces the water out of the sandstone making it accessible to well pumps, Raynolds said.
The different layers of sandstone correspond to the levels of the Denver Basin, he said.
The reason there are numerous sandstone layers is because of the rise and fall of the Rocky Mountains, Raynolds said.
The mountains were pushed up, then eroded down time and time again by rivers, he said.
These ancient rivers formed deltas, or fans, of sand which eventually turned to sandstone, Raynolds said.
These ancient river deltas are now a major source of water for many living along the Front Range.
Water levels are dropping significantly, by about 30 feet per year, said Bob Raynolds, geologist and Denver Museum of Nature and Science research associate.
This phase of the project was sponsored by a National Science Foundation and focused mainly on the Arapahoe aquifer which underlies the Dawson and Denver aquifers, Raynolds said.
The Parker Water and Sanitation District has also been supportive.
"They donated $50,000 to the study," Raynolds said.
He added that Parker water officials wanted to support the study to provide a clearer picture of exactly where the water lies within the different aquifer levels.
Parker gets the water it distributes to its customers from aquifer wells, Raynolds said.
The next phase of the project will focus on the Denver Aquifer and will start when the museum can obtain more grant money, said Raynolds and museum public relations manager Jim Berscheidt. They now are writing grant proposals toward that end.
"The Denver Aquifer is more uneven [than the Arapahoe Aquifer]," Raynolds said. "We know less about its distribution patterns."
The dropping water table should be of particular concern to people living in Douglas County because much of their water comes from wells that tap into Denver Basin aquifers, Raynolds said.
Inevitably, the water table will drop to a point where it will be completely contained within sandstone fan formations that comprise the aquifers, he said.
At that point, there will be water remaining in the aquifers, but it will be inaccessible.
This scenario is a long way off, but as the levels keep dropping, the cost of water will continue to rise as people using aquifer water are forced to deepen their wells, Raynolds said.
"There is not a danger of running out of water," he said. "But it is a question of how much you will be paying for the water."
People living in places liking Parker, who are supplied with aquifer water, will see their water bills rise significantly as the levels fall, Raynolds said.
A graduate student in hydrology engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden has just begun a project that will use complex computer modeling to predict how long it will be before Front Range population growth will deplete the aquifers to the unusable point, Raynolds said.
"He has just received the new data, so it will be a while [before the computer model is completed]," he said.
Aquifer fans are the layers of petrified sandstone that hold the water that people now have the benefit of using, Raynolds said.
Underground, the earth, and therefore the water in the sandstone, is under tremendously greater pressure than at the surface, he said.
It is this increased pressure that forces the water out of the sandstone making it accessible to well pumps, Raynolds said.
The different layers of sandstone correspond to the levels of the Denver Basin, he said.
The reason there are numerous sandstone layers is because of the rise and fall of the Rocky Mountains, Raynolds said.
The mountains were pushed up, then eroded down time and time again by rivers, he said.
These ancient rivers formed deltas, or fans, of sand which eventually turned to sandstone, Raynolds said.
These ancient river deltas are now a major source of water for many living along the Front Range.
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