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Not Nontributary and Nontributary Denver Basin Groundwater Denver Basin Groundwater is located within the Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, and Laramie-Fox Hills aquifers. It is allo- cated to overlying landowners like non- tributary water, except that part of the Denver Basin included within a desig- nated groundwater basin. There are two types of Denver Basin groundwater outside of any designated basin, not nontributary and nontributary groundwater. Pumping of either requires some replacement of water to the surface stream, because the General Assembly presumes by statute that there might be some hydraulic connection of these aquifers to the South Platte Basin. Groundwater Use Rights According to the 196 Ground Water Management Act, every new well in the state of Colorado that diverts tributary, nontributary, Denver Basin groundwater, or geothermal resources must have a per- mit. Groundwater use rights depend on the source of the groundwater and the type of beneficial use. In order to obtain a permit to drill a well, one must file an application with the Colorado Division of Water Resources, also known as the State Engineer's Office. To obtain a water right decree for tributary groundwater, one must file a well permit application and submit other required doc- umentation to the regional water court. When well permit applications are submitted, division staff determines the amount of groundwater available, the potential for groundwater use to injure other existing water rights, and if the with- drawal will. not be unreasonably wasteful. The State Engineer also has authority to adopt and amend tributary, nontributary, and Denver Basin groundwater regulations that are subject to court review. The designated groundwater permit Deep Groundwater system was designed to protect and main- tain reasonable groundwater pumping lev- els. The Division of Water Resources assists the Colorado Ground Water Commission in reviewing designated groundwater permit applications. Designated groundwater is allocated and administered in a coordinated manner by the State Engineer's Office, Colorado Ground Water Commission, and local Ground Water Management Districts. Nontributary groundwater outside of any designated groundwater basins is allo- cated to the overlying landowner and can be withdrawn at a rate of 1 percent a year, assuming a 100-year life of the aquifer. Geothermal resources are administered and managed according to the "Geothermal ~\-ell Rules.- Denver Basin Aquifer System ~;, Pueblo' DAWTON AQUIFER DENYEN AQUIFEF P ~ ~ AruPANOE AQUIFEG ;:` ~_ _ .. Water in the Denver Basin aquifers is allocated to overlying landowners at a withdrawal rate of i)ne percent per year until exhausted. The Colorado Geological Survey estimates that up to 270 million acre-feet of water lies in the 7,000 square-mile Denver Basin, although less than half of that may be economically recoverable. New communities, homeowners, and other landowners in the southern Denver metropolitan area have begun to depend heavily on this finite resource. Denver Basin groundwater outside of any designated groundwater basin is allo- cated and administered like nontributary groundwater, but its use must be replaced, or augmented, by returning to the surface stream part of the pumped groundwater. Current statutes allow public entities, such as cities and water districts, to claim and use non-designated Denver Basin groundwater underlying the lands of oth- ers, if the entity makes water service avail- able to the landowners, and if the landown- ers have not already claimed the groundwa- ter rights by obtaining a court decree or a well permit from the State Engineer. These requirements are in place because the General Assembly recognized that the Denver Basin groundwater is of great economic importance to the overly- ing landowners and therefore should remain available for present and future use. C I T I Z E N S G U I D E T^ C^ L O R A D^ W ATE R L A W ~ t i The Denver Basin Aquifer System (at~ove) is comprised o f four aquifers that lie under the Mains east of the mountains.