Laserfiche WebLink
Artificial Recharge of Ground Water in Colorado <br />A Statewide Assessment <br />tration <br />Y <br />Y <br />d <br />0 <br />R <br />G] <br />T <br />0 <br />L <br />a <br />The Frisco Marina <br />on Dillon Reservoir <br />during the summer <br />2002 drought. <br />Figure I -1. Construction of dams and the development of surface -water reservoirs has been the traditional means of <br />storing water. An environmentally sensitive, low -cost, flexible alternative is to store water underground in aquifers. <br />Artificial recharge in some fashion has been used for centuries. During the last several hundred <br />years, nomads in Turkmenistan have been collecting infrequent surface runoff into an infiltration <br />pit located in sand dunes where the surface water recharges near - surface ground water. Ground <br />water is then available for extraction from a series of hand -dug wells surrounding the pit even <br />during dry periods (Pyne, 1995). A tribal community in western India has also been applying <br />artificial recharge to enhance water supply and improve water quality obtained from a tank <br />excavated in fine sand and clay (Pyne, 1995). Closer to home, California began practicing <br />artificial recharge by routing storm runoff into infiltration (spreading) basins around the turn of <br />the century. Interest in artificial recharge grew in California and New York during the 1930s as <br />a way to conserve or enhance ground -water resources (Weeks, 2002). <br />In Colorado, the earliest documented application of artificial recharge began at Olds Reservoir in <br />Weld County when local farmers took advantage of a leaky reservoir built several decades <br />earlier. Surface water was diverted into the little used structure in order to maintain water levels <br />in the underlying alluvial aquifer (Skinner, 1963). In 1959, the Colorado Agricultural <br />Experiment Station (CAES) initiated a study of artificial and natural recharge in Colorado that <br />was funded by the Forty- second Colorado General Assembly under Senate Bill No. 336. This <br />study was initiated to consider artificial recharge in the following basins (CSU, 1960): <br />• South Platte River Basin <br />• Arkansas River Basin <br />• Colorado High Plains Ogallala formation <br />• San Luis Valley <br />• Denver Basin bedrock aquifers <br />• Dakota and Cheyenne sandstone <br />• Grand Junction Basin <br />0 <br />