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<br />Artificial Recharge of Ground Water in Colorado <br />A Statewide Assessment <br /> <br />v. Selected National and International Artificial Recharge Applications <br /> <br />Artificial recharge (AR) is being used in at least 32 states in the U.S. (Figure V-I) and at least <br />26 countries worldwide (Figure V-2). Methods used span the entire spectrum of known <br />technologies, but the dominant methods are injection wells and infiltration basins. Currently, <br />more than 60 aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) sites are in operation around the U.S. These <br />projects range from a single well to networks of 30 wells, with recovery capacities ranging from <br />500,000 gallons per day from single wells to 100 million gallons per day (mgd) from well fields <br />(Tampa Water Dept., 2003). The larger scaJe projects are generally located in drier areas of the <br />U.S. (i.e., the west and southwest), or areas in which the growing population has overtaxed the <br />available water supply (e.g., California, Florida, New Jersey, New York). The following section <br />provides brief descriptions of some of the higher profile projects in the U.S. and around the <br />globe. <br /> <br />NATIONAL PROJECTS <br /> <br />High Plains Aquifer System <br />The High Plains Aquifer system forms one of the largest and most important ground-water <br />resources in the United States, supplying agriculture as well as municipal water providers in the <br />states of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New <br />Mexico. Comprised of late Tertiary sediments, the aquifer covers approximately 156,000 square <br />miles and includes a number of recognized geologic units. The Pliocene Ogallala Fonnation is <br />the most widespread and commonly recognized geologic unit within the High Plains Aquifer and <br />consists of quartz-rich sand, silt and gravel in varying degrees of consolidation. <br /> <br />Withdrawal of ground water from the Ogallala on a large-scale basis began in the 1930s <br />predominantly for agricultural purposes (Robertson, 2003). By the 1980s, about 16 million <br />acres, more than 20 percent of the nation's irrigated land, were watered from the Ogallala <br />Aquifer (Longenbaugh and others, 1984). Municipal and industrial use occurs to a lesser degree. <br />High salinity often makes the resource undesirable for drinking water. The aggressive ground- <br />water withdrawal has caused a decline in the water table, producing concerns that the resource <br />might be locally depleted in a few decades. <br /> <br />Among the many recharge projects undertaken in the High Plains within the Ogallala Aquifer <br />have been: the Holcomb lrrigation Farm operated by Kansas State University; the investigation <br />in Wet Walnut Creek Valley in Rush County, Kansas; tests in Scott County, Kansas conducted <br />by USGS and Western Kansas Groundwater Management District No.1 (Gillespie and Slagle, <br />1972; Gillespie and others, 1977; Stullken, 1988). In Texas, the USGS has partnered with Texas <br />Tech on recharge projects near Lubbock and Wolfforth, and has worked with the Agricultural <br />Research Service on projects near Hereford and in Hale County (Brown and Keys, 1985). In <br />Nebraska, which contains the largest area underlain by the Ogallala, the Upper Big Blue Natural <br />Resources District, with funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, conducted a recharge <br />project near York in the southeastern part of the state (Western States Water Council, 1998). <br /> <br />28 <br />