If someone tells you three times in a conversation that he or she has a black belt in Teashido, what is the message? If you answered that this person is warning you that they have special skills that makes them formidable, then congratulations, you understood their point. I say this because of course everybody knows that Teashido is the ancient martial art of flinging boiling hot tea in your face. The subliminal message here is that you better mind your "p's and q's" or the master may just have to put a teapot on the burner. They want you to know that they have a superior position in the conversation and you best be listening to them. You see this all the time, maybe even at a BOCC meeting. "I am an engineer, I am an engineer, I am an engineer!" They spin around in a circle three times (OBTW... did I mention the number three is magic?) and give you a look that screams, "Everything I say henceforth is unimpeachable truth!" It is at this point they make their point. "There is a thousand years of water in the Denver Bedrock Aquifers.”
At this moment the best response to this statement is to just stand up and say, "Horsefeathers, horsefeathers, horsefeathers!" Spin around in a circle three times and then give them a look that screams, "Not so, Mr. Wizard!” Make the point that, "There are numerous studies to the contrary about the depletion of the Denver Bedrock Aquifers from expert hydrologists in the field. Experts. Really!”
This is an important topic. So now I am going to get a bit more serious. I went to the Elbert County Commissioners Town Hall meeting at the Gates Mercantile Building in Elbert last Wednesday night, January 15th. Shortly after my arrival, Commissioner Thayer said that there may be as much as a thousand years of water beneath our feet. This is not the first time that this figure has been bandied about. There may be, of course, millions of years of water left in the Denver Bedrock Aquifer System if we just agree to not withdraw any water from it ever again. Yes, eventually it would return to its pre-European expansionism in North America levels. Of course that is not going to happen. According to numerous reports on the subject which you can access online from the USGS, there is a great deal of uncertainty on the part of many hydrologists as to just how much water is actually still in the aquifers. Scientists cannot determine with preciseness what the makeup of the layers in the earth look like to determine how porous they are. They can take core samples and use sophisticated sonar devises but at best they have to use the word "if" a lot to describe what is available to us. "If" these measurements are consistent across the entire formation then it will hold x amount of water.
For purposes of this article my main source of information is from the usgs.gov/publication/70029731 entitled Assessment of Groundwater Depletion and Implications for Management in the Denver Basin Aquifer System. It was published in October of 2019. In that document the authors of the report basically lay out a snapshot of what they believe is happening in the aquifers. I must be fair, essentially our commissioners did not stray too far away from the information that is provided in the study. Still, the notion that, at our current rate of development partnered with the ongoing over-allocation of water in the top three aquifers and the value of potable water reaching all time highs, the concept that Elbert County residents need not be concerned is ludicrous.
It amazes me that no one from our county government will acknowledge the impending water crises looming on our horizon. Nobody from the Colorado Division of Water Resources will admit that they are responsible for the gross over-allocation of water in the top two Dawson aquifers. And finally, that Grant Thayer can say with a straight face that he has no idea what the impact of the development and subsequent water shortages in El Paso, Arapahoe and Douglas counties might be, just after telling us three times that he is a engineer, is just flat-out wrong! He may not know the exact impact, but just like the guy facing a tsunami wave bearing down on him while on the beach, he knows it ain’t gonna be good and he'd better make some good decisions…soon.
The people who have lived here in the county were never made aware of all of this. The taxpayers were never cautioned that you may need to dig wells that are deep enough to allow you the most water available on your property and consistent with the parameters of your domestic well rights to avoid future financial surprises. Over 90% of Elbert County residents are on well and septic. Wells are one of the biggest investments when building or buying an existing home out here. Once you are a resident and you are paying taxes, you naturally assume that your needs take priority over those of a developer who has yet to build a single home. That may be your assumption, but it would be wrong.
I was left in slack jawed amazement that the 900 pound gorilla in the room was not even discussed Wednesday evening. When the water in the Independence footprint is developed and the pressure on the top aquifers is realized coupled with the usage of those living to the west of us in Douglas County, it is going to be a difficult scenario for those living adjacent and to the south of Cty. Rd. 158. Wells will fail... in fact they already are. It is not about if the Craft development is breaking the law. They are entitled to explore the limits of their rightly purchased water rights and that fact should be recognized. But the question should be what can our county officials and future developers do (in terms of usage and planning) that helps keep existing landowners assured that they will not be harmed? But no, the evening “town hall” just became a session where both the developers and the local government wanted to be absolved of any wrong doing. In the opinion of this writer and resident, that is very unfortunate.
I do not give a whit with which political party you choose to identify. But at a minimum, if you are the slightest bit concerned about the water beneath your feet, and want to continue to live out here, then become engaged in the political process long enough to know whomever you vote into office is aware that this is your priority. If you do not, the problem will only get worse. When water problems get bad, water districts form, pipelines are built, and your mailbox fills up with water bills. You will pay what the market demands and it won't be inexpensive. I will leave you with a quote from the abstract on which I am making many of my points. It describes how much the water levels were going down in an area of Douglas County, our very close neighbor to the west, due to over-development in the recent past.
"Several key depletion patterns and spatial water‐level changes emerge in this work. Hydraulic head changes are the largest in the west‐central side of the DBAS and have decreased in some areas by up to 180 m since 1990…”
No comments:
Post a Comment