So a friend of
mine, who just happens to be a Republican, sent me the following Chris
Richardson diatribe from the Elbert County Republicans Page:
"In
terms of water, this is very well thought out project. The developer
has a strong conservation component to the community. A CAT III (treated
to almost drinkable levels) water plant will capture and treat all the
water used in the homes of the community and reuse it for irrigation of
open spaces and individual lawns - through this method, the amount of
water allocated to the project by the state (only water that exists
under the boundaries of the property itself) will provide for over 500
years of supply. This is far in excess of the 300 years we require in
Elbert County (we and El Paso County require 300 years - all other
counties only require 100 years supply).
Additionally,
during the hearings we made the developer change his plan to ensure
that there could be no shipment of water outside of the county from this
property. Additionally, any shipment of water to support any individual
or entity outside of the property (but within the county) would have to
be requested by those that would receive the water and could only be
approved after a publicly noticed hearing so no changes could be made
secretly in the future. Again - any changes considered would have to
meet our 300 water requirement."
Ever the comedian, Chris started his post with a deep pun: "...this is a very WELL thought
out project." Now, that right there is some funny stuff on several
different levels, five different levels, as a matter of fact...one for
each aquifer in the Denver Basin. Was this project carefully thought
through as much as Chris describes? Yes, it was! I have no doubt that
the lawyers, water district officials, and investors would not have
settled for less. They have poured a ton of money into this project. I
am sure the orders came down from the very top of the water chamber of
command, "Think of a way we can get that water out from under Elbert
County!" someone hollered. And with that...the stage was set.
In
capital letters Chris Richardson defines the water treatment as a "CAT
III!" Damned if that does not sound as serious as a heart attack or at
least a hurricane bearing down on Florida. At one point Hurricane
Irma was designated a CAT III! You have captured our attention now,
Commissioner Richardson. Richardson then quickly lets you know just how
serious this whole thing is by saying the water will be treated to near drinkable levels! Wow. Here's a fact for Commissioner Richardson: Urine is near drinkable!
Was this treatment process thing designed by NASA? I find myself now
thinking (tongue firmly in cheek) that I would be damned lucky to have
near-drinking water running out of a tap at my house. Oh, and by the
way, I hope I am spelling this correctly. Should this new term be
hyphenated? Merriam-Webster failed to cue me in on the proper spelling
of "near-drinking." Maybe the taps will be color coded. Clear PVC is
potable water while yellow PVC is near-drinkable. I am feeling a little
sorry for my colorblind friends right now.
The
good commissioner then goes on to show how the 300 year water rule
protects us from running out of water in Elbert County. What could
possibly go wrong there? I mean, Douglas County didn't want to wait 300
to 500 years to run out of water. They did it in a matter of a mere
couple of decades. As a result, we now have people just like former
commissioner Kurt Schlegel running around trying to purchase water for
places like Falcon, Castle Rock and Franktown. What? You thought Kurt
was at the BOCC meeting because he wants to grow Elbert County? It was
more likely he was there as the head of the Cherokee Water District,
which is trying to purchase water for El Paso County residents.
With
a population of less than 30,000 people in Elbert County,
near-drinkable water standards, and a 300 year water rule, we must be in
great shape. And with an expected price for an acre foot of water from
the Denver Basin to top $30K, nobody can make any money on a resource
that experts are calling the new gold. Does that make sense to you? Oh well, you can can trust Kurt and Chris. They were elected after all.
As for building in protections from transferring water to another water district by saying they would have to have a hearing, they just voted unanimously to okay a project on a flawed PUD. That is not me
saying that; that is a law firm ready to go to court against Elbert
County saying that. The BOCC would okay making declaring water skiing
the official sport of the county if Independence developer Tim Craft's
attorneys were requesting it.
I
would also like to remind Mr. Richardson that you can say anything you
want to your lawyer. Craft can sell his water no matter what you do to
coerce him with your highfalutin lawyer. Mr. Craft was agitated that
Mr. Richardson made approval of the proposed development, contingent
upon not transferring water to another water district without first
gaining permission from the BOCC. That said, the water rights are his,
adjudicated, a personal asset and if he wants to sell them? Well, let's
just say that you, Mr. Richardson, do not have any say-so in that
regard. All you did was make his payout a one time event instead of a
regular paycheck. Look it up.
Now,
in a more serious tone: Unlike Mr. Richardson, I do not profess to be a
water expert but I have been working on water issues since the
mid-1990's. I sat on a couple of very important Restoration Advisory
Boards (RAB's). There were some very serious issues of contamination to
the Denver Bedrock Aquifers from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, the Denver
Waste Management Super Fund site on Gun Club Road, and the Former
Bombing and Gunnery Range for Lowry Air Force Base. In order to be on
any RAB and make a difference, you have to keep up with a host of
experts provided to you nonstop from the Army Corps of Engineers. You have to do your homework. You have
to learn about how aquifers work, what their designations mean and who
stands to make or lose money when it comes to selling, buying, polluting
or making false claims about water in an aquifer system. That is how
my wife and I came to be somewhat knowledgeable about water. Not
experts, but I am confident in my claims.
I am not exactly sure what would prompt Mr. Richardson to boast that there impenetrable layers of rock exist
between the five layers of the Denver Basin, but I have a lot of
research that would indicate that while that might be true in areas of
the Basin, it certainly is not true for the entire basin.
He goes on to say,
"The
wells that will support this community will pull water primarily from
the deep Denver and Arapahoe aquifers, not from the more shallow Upper
and Lower Dawson Aquifers that people with individual wells use. There
is no communication between the 5 aquifers (Upper and Lower Dawsons,
Denver, Arapahoe, and Laramie-Fox Hills) that fall under the property.
So usage of water from one aquifer doesn't effect water levels in
another. (NOTE: Some usage of Dawson wells already permitted on the
property is envisioned until the reuse/irrigation system is online -
this usage is approved by the state and the allocation is minimal).
Bottom line - the water used by this community will not affect local
existing wells. I know that people are concerned but, the facts should
minimize those concerns."
Mr.
Richardson likes terms like "communication" when speaking about
aquifers. Of course it is a nonsensical use of terminology because
water is not sentient and only seeks to find its level. The Denver
Basin and its five aquifers were formed by the breaking down of our
Rocky Mountains, which actually used to be very much larger than they
are today. As a result, there are a lot of different kinds of layers of
rock. There is a great deal of conglomerate rock that is very porous.
There are some vast and very dense areas of expansive clays. There is a
great deal of sand, which is why our aquifers have given many the
impression that there is lots and lots of water below our feet. Not so
fast, cowboy.
But
if you sit down with the geologists who specialize in aquifers and the
formations in which they reside, you soon learn that there are plenty of
mathematical calculations that present educated guesses at the amounts
of water in the Denver Basin. None of them are necessarily accurate.
Those geologists just do not know how much water is in the
Basin. They cannot know because the formation is comprised of so many
different kinds of features that they have no way of knowing, when they
do a core sample, just what it will reveal.
Talk
to any well digger along the Front Range. Talk to anyone that has to
do percolation tests to see if your ground is suitable for a septic
field. Those people will tell you about clays, sandstone, sand lenses,
and thick slabs of conglomerate rock. Look up at the escarpments next
to Kiowa and Cherry Creek. Does that rock appear to be solid granite?
Even the most impenetrable layers of bentonite clay hide lenses of
sand.
I
am reminded of a geologist from the Army Corps of Engineers who wanted
to dig a seventy-five foot deep trench around the Denver Waste
Management Super Fund Site in Aurora off of Gun Club Road and Quincy
over twenty years ago. He insisted that, if you fill the trench with
expansive clay, it would make an impenetrable wall around the cesspool
of Benzene and other deadly toxins in the groundwater because the
landfill sat squarely on a layer of what was said to be solid rock. Of
course, we looked at it but did not allow them to build the trench
barrier without test wells outside the proposed wall's perimeter.
Within a few months of completion of the clay wall, toxins were
found in the test wells. After doing more bores, it was determined that
there were significant sand lenses in the rock. One scientist said
that those lenses might be as wide as seventy-five feet.
When
Chris Richardson tells you he knows what the Denver Basin looks like
and whether it will or will not allow for water to migrate from one
aquifer to another, he is just spouting half-truths. If I had a dollar
for every time Grant Thayer has announced publicly that he had a
prosperous career as an engineer and knows a thing or two about oil, gas
and water, I wouldn't need to stop by the ATM for a month of Sundays.
What I never hear either one of them ask the people (who they are about to school in Aquifers 101) is if they just might have
a background that might shed a bit more light on the subject. Never
was that so apparent as it was during the testimony on the Independence
development.
The
commissioners in this county, for as far back as I can remember, act as
if they are anointed to the high station of Elbert County Commissioner
by their Maker and that they are the font of all wisdom. They are not, and neither am I, but at least I am willing to do my homework and learn.
I
have been active in the fight for people to take charge of their
property rights for many years. There is some irony in the fact that a
Democrat has to remind a Republican BOCC that water districts are a bane
to the water rights of the average homeowner in this county. It goes
without saying, these three commissioners have been on board with the
Independence development since they began their campaigns over a year
ago. There were and still are conflicts of interest and most definitely
intellectual dishonesty.
The
citizens were ignored and the Central Committee of the Elbert County
Republicans are responsible for the future outcome of this project, not
the rank and file Republicans who only wanted their elected officials to
demand a reset on this project.
