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Artificial Recharge of Ground Water in Colorado A Statewide Assessment . 4 4 t 4 4 4 4 4 4 ~ j l l I Arizona Municipalities and special districts manage most of the recharge projects in Arizona with some projects partially managed and/or funded by the Bureau of Reclamation. Recharge is focused on unconsolidated to semi-consolidated basin-fill aquifers. The primary recharge objectives include stabilizing ground-water levels to reduce subsidence impacts and to store Arizona's excess Colorado River allotment. Recharge occurs primarily by injection and infiltration, with volumes ranging from approximately 3500 to 200,000 ac-ft per year. The Granite Reef Underground Storage Project (GRUSP) has used four infiltration basins to recharge 194,000 ac-ft per year since 1994. The source water is conveyed via the Central Arizona Project Aqueduct. The Vidler Recharge Project, slated to become operational this year, proposes to recharge 100,000 ac-ft per year of Central Arizona Project water. The city of Tucson artificially recharges a small quantity of treated wastewater and uses it for irrigation. Florida Florida has 13 operating ASR projects using a total of 43 injection wells, most of which are located in the southern half of the state (ASR Forum, 2004). In the Orlando area, a relatively impervious surface geologic formation retards natural recharge to the underlying limestone. Due to the lack of adequate surface drainage, a network of wells were drilled into the limestone in the 1940s to act as surface drains thereby recharging the underlying aquifer (Unklesbay and Cooper, 1946). Over 400 such wells are located in the Orlando area (German and Bradner, 1988). Kansas Since 1997,5 pcrccnt of Wichita's water needs, over 3,000 acre-feet, have been met by an AR project administered by the Equus Beds Groundwater Management District (Ziegler and Ross, 2002; Sophocleous and Buchanan, 2003). Treated source water from the Little Arkansas River is piped and transferred to wells, ponds, and other structures where it recharges the Equus Beds portion of the High Plains Aquifer, an important source of drinking water for the city of Wichita and other cities, and a source of water for irrigation and domestic use in central Kansas. The project also keeps the water table high enough to prevent a salt plume (originating from the briny Arkansas River) from migrating into the Wichita water-supply well-field. While the project is still in its initial stages, it seems to have been successful in artificially moving water from a surface source (the Little Arkansas River) into the Equus Beds portion of the High Plains Aquifer. The quality of ground water has remained mostly unchanged over the life of the project. Nebraska Ground-water resources in Nebraska occur in alluvial aquifers associated with the Platte River and its tributaries, and in the High Plains Aquifer. Concerns with declining water levels and deterioration in water quality, due primarily to agricultural fertilizers, have prompted AR pilot studies in several locations in Nebraska. In 1978, the USGS investigated recharging an alluvial aquifer tributary to the Platte River in south-central Nebraska in order to restore water levels. Recharge of alluvial aquifers has also been investigated by the Nebraska Water Resources Center with USGS support at Platte River and at Aurora by the Old West Regional Council. Aurora is in the Big Blue River basin in southeast Nebraska. At York, the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District took part in the US Bureau of Reclamation's High Plains States Groundwater Demonstration Project with a pilot study recharging the Ogallala aquifer. There has also been 32