My WebLink
|
Help
|
About
|
Sign Out
Home
Browse
Search
BOARD00363
CWCB
>
Board Meetings
>
Backfile
>
1-1000
>
BOARD00363
Metadata
Thumbnails
Annotations
Entry Properties
Last modified
8/16/2009 2:49:29 PM
Creation date
10/4/2006 6:36:44 AM
Metadata
Fields
Template:
Board Meetings
Board Meeting Date
5/24/2004
Description
Artificial Recharge of Ground Water in Colorado - A Statewide Assessment
Board Meetings - Doc Type
Memo
There are no annotations on this page.
Document management portal powered by Laserfiche WebLink 9 © 1998-2015
Laserfiche.
All rights reserved.
/
158
PDF
Print
Pages to print
Enter page numbers and/or page ranges separated by commas. For example, 1,3,5-12.
After downloading, print the document using a PDF reader (e.g. Adobe Reader).
Show annotations
View images
View plain text
<br />~ <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br />. <br /> <br />Artificial Recharge of Ground Water in Colorado <br />A Statewide Assessment <br /> <br />Back!!round <br /> <br />Colorado is a semi-arid state with a rapidly growing population that is straining a limited water- <br />resource base. Compounding the situation is the geographic imbalance of water supply with <br />water demand. The greatest amount of precipitation, and hence the greatest runoff of surface <br />water, occurs on the Western Slope of Colorado's Rocky Mountains, yet the greatest number of <br />people live on the Eastern Slope ofthe Rockies. A second imbalance exists in the relative timing <br />of supply and demand. The greatest supply falls in the late winter and spring, while the greatest <br />demand occurs in the summer, well after the snowmelt runoff has peaked. These factors <br />mandate careful management of the limited resource to provide a sustainable supply. In <br />Colorado, management of the water resource has evolved into a complex system of water law, <br />which attempts to allocate the limited resource fairly, and a complex infrastructure system to <br />distribute the limited resource. The infrastructure system includes numerous water storage and <br />diversion facilities, which include a series of trans-basin diversions that generally move water <br />from west to east, across and under the Continental Divide. <br /> <br />Sustainable water management relies on the ability to store water. The traditional method of <br />storing water has been to construct dams and develop reservoirs (Fig 1-1). However, the high <br />cost and long timeframes combined with adverse ecological, environmental, and socio-cultural <br />impacts have hindered construction of new large reservoir projects in the west. In addition, <br />surface reservoirs lose tremendous amounts of water to evaporation (especially in the semi-arid <br />west), require expensive maintenance, accumulate sediment, have the potential of structural <br />failure, are vulnerable to contamination whether accidental or by criminal acts, increase breeding <br />areas for disease carrying insects, and interfere with river ecology. A viable alternative is the <br />storage of water below ground in aquifers, which are natural reservoirs. <br /> <br />Ground water has long been an important water resource in parts of Colorado, particularly on the <br />Eastern Slope where surface-water supplies are limited. In fact, many regions and communities <br />are completely dependant on ground water for agricultural and municipal supplies. Much of the <br />rapidly growing southern Denver metropolitan region is currently dependant on non-renewable <br />ground water extracted from the Denver Basin aquifer system. As a result of the extensive <br />development of ground water to meet a rapidly growing population, ground-water supplies are <br />being depleted and water levels are declining. For example, water levels in the Denver Basin <br />Arapahoe aquifer southeast of Denver are dropping at rates up to 30 feet per year (ft/yr) (DWR, <br />2000). <br /> <br />In addition to water supply, aquifer storage can be utilized as part of an overall water <br />management strategy. This storage potential can be used in the short-term, season-to-season <br />balancing act between natural supply and demand, or to provide a cushion for periods of drought. <br />Referred to as conjunctive use, surface water is used as the primary source of water in periods of <br />abundance, while ground water is reserved for times when surface water is limited. When <br />necessary, natural ground-water recharge can be enhanced to take advantage of peak surface- <br />water flows. Aquifers represent tremendous opportunities for underground storage of water with <br />essentially zero evaporative losses. <br /> <br />3 <br />
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.