BOARD02442

• Board Meeting Date: 5/11/1998
• Description: South Platte River Basin Issues - South Platte River Basin Aquifer Studies - SB 96-74 and SB 96-153
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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U.S. Geological Survey
Quarterly Report of Progress for

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INFRASTRUCTURE RESOURCES PROJECT
Water Resources Activities
January - March 1998

PROJECT NUMBER: CO-308

STUDY LOCATION: The demonstration area for the Infrastructure Resources Project extends from
near Nunn, Co (northeast of Fort Collins, Co) south to the Douglas-Arapahoe county line south of
Denver, and from the Front Range east to Greeley, Co. The area is 2450 square miles.

COOPERATING AGENCIES: Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Division of Water Resources,
and the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

PROJECT DURATION: Three-year Demonstration Phase: October 1996 through
September 1999.

PROJECT PERSONNEL: USGS-WRD Colorado District

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Stan Robson
Janet Heiny
Jennifer Sieverling
Steve Char
Sharon Rafferty
Rick Arnold

Hydrologist
Hydrologist
GIS Specialist
GIS Specialist
GIS Specialist
. Geologist

Prciject Chief

PROBLEM: Infrastructure, such as highways, airports, water and energy transmission and distribution
facilities and all large buildings are built and maintained by use of large amounts of natural resources
such as aggregate (sand and gravel), water, and energy. As urban areas expand, local sources of these
resources are becoming inaccessible (gravel can not be mined from under a subdivision, for example),
or the cost of recovery ofthe resource becomes prohibitive (oil and gas drilling in urban areas is costly),
or the resources may become unfit for some use (pollution of ground water may preclude its use as a
water supply). Land-use decisions and mandates by Federal, State, and local governments further
preclude development of natural resources. If infrastructure resources are to remain economically
available, current resource information must be available for use in well reasoned decisions about future
land use.

OBJECTIVES: General objectives of the Infrastructure Resources Project are to implement a multi-
discipline evaluation of the area's infrastructure resources, identify issues that may affect the availability
of resources, and provide tools to evaluate alternatives leading to sustained access to infrastructure
resources. Specific objectives related to water resources include: TASK 1) define the water-resource
potential of the shallow aquifers that underlie the area; TASK 2) define the potential interaction between
water in the shallow aquifers and the deeper bedrock aquifers; and TASK 3) define the water-quality
characteristics of the shallow aquifers. These three tasks are discussed individually in each of the
following sections.

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APPROACH: TASK 1. Lithologic logs and water-level data from large numbers of shallow wells and
test holes will be used to map 1) the thickness of the unconsolidated sediments overlying bedrock, 2) the
altitude of the buried bedrock surface, 3) the altitude of the water table and direction of ground-water
movement, 4) the saturated thickness of the shallow aquifers, and 5) the depth to ground water.