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Peter E. Barkmann <br />southeast of Denver in rapidly growing area Arapahoe and <br />Douglas counties where surface water supplies are scarce. <br />Managing this groundwater resource requires under- <br />standing how water gets into and moves through water - <br />bearing layers in a complex sedimentary sequence. This <br />understanding must be built upon a sound knowledge of <br />the geometry of the many sedimentary facies comprising <br />the sequence and the hydrogeologic properties of each of <br />the sedimentary rock types preserved in the sequence <br />that control groundwater flow. The Denver Basin aquifer <br />The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists 170 <br />Figure 1. The Denver Basin <br />aquifer system covers an area <br />of nearly 6700 mil, based on <br />the distribution of the Laramie - <br />Fox Hills aquifer; but vertical <br />hydraulic conductivity data <br />from core samples have been <br />published from only five loca- <br />tions in the Basin. Modified <br />from Topper et al., 2003. <br />system consists of permeable sandstone interbedded with <br />impermeable shale. With data from over 4200 geophysical <br />logs, the geometry of the sedimentary sequence can be <br />fairly well interpreted. Indeed, a comprehensive picture <br />of the complex architecture of the sedimentary package is <br />emerging, as described elsewhere in this issue. Public <br />agencies and many private and semi - private water <br />providers have gathered a wealth of data pertaining to <br />the hydrogeologic properties of the aquifers. However, <br />much of the hydrogeologic data gathered to date pertains <br />