DWR_3211863

• Title: GROUND WATER LEVELS IN THE DENVER BASIN BEDROCK AQUIFERS
• Year: 1990
• Document Type - Publications and Reports: Ground Water Levels Report

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WATER LEVEL DATA, DENVER BASIN BEDROCK AQUIFER
OBSERVATION WELL NETWORK, 1990 ,
INTRODUCTION
The Denver ground water basin underlies an area of approximately 6,700
square miles. Four major bedrock aquifers occur in the Denver Basin. In
descending order these are the Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, and Laramie -Fox Hills
aquifers. The basin extends southward from Greeley to a point approximately
25 miles southeast of Colorado Springs and eastward from the Front Range
foothills to near Limon. The northern boundary of the basin is the South
Platte River from LaSalle to the community of Orchard. Depths to the top of
the aquifers from land surface range from only a few feet or less in
outcrop-subcrop areas to over 2500 feet to the Laramie -Fox Hills aquifer in
southeastern Douglas County.
# Water withdrawn from the bedrock aquifers is used primarily for domestic,
stock, irrigation, industrial, and municipal purposes. Well discharges range
from a few gallons per minute to several hundreds of gallons per minute..
Water -level declines over the past 15 years range from 10-20 feet in some
rural areas to over 200 feet in the Arapahoe aquifer in southeastern
metropolitan Denver.
This report tabulates measurements of spring 1990 water levels in a
network of 233 bedrock water wells within the Denver Basin. The aquifers of
observation are the Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, and Laramie -Fox Hills.
The Colorado Division of Water Resources began recording ground water
levels in 12 bedrock -aquifer water wells in 1971. Measurements were taken by
the Colorado Division of Water Resources until 1976, and thereafter by the
U.S. Geological Survey. The U. S. Geological Survey maintained a network of
observation wells and in addition made two mass measurements of selected
bedrock wells in the late '70's and early '80's. In 1980, the Colorado
Division of Water Resources began a bedrock observation well network in
southeastern metropolitan Denver. by 1985 USGS water -level measurement
activity sharply declined; only a small fraction of the original wells were
being measured on a scheduled basis.
Throughout that time the general public's only access to water level data
was either in appendicies or tables in hydrologeologic oriented reports, or in
* water well and project files at CDWR and USGS offices. Water -level data in
the reports are useful, but report areas might be limited in extent and
water -level measurement dates are normally behind publication dates by one or
two years. Water level and project files contain a considerable quantity of
useful data, but access to and interpretation of the data are frequently time
consuming.
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