DEVELOPING A COMPREHENSIVE WATER LEVEL DATABASE TO ASSESS AQUIFER DEPLETIONS IN THE DENVER BASIN, COLORADO

In a number of locations within Denver Basin there is an insufficient surface water supply to meet growing demands. As wells in these areas are developed there is more stress on the bedrock aquifer system. An indicator of this stress is the change in water levels in the aquifers. A component of the South Platte Decision Support System project being developed by the State’s Department of Natural Resources is to collect and analyze water level data to characterize the resource and to help assess conditions of the Denver Basin.

Water level data were collected from Designated Basin data reports, the State’s Denver Basin and South Platte Alluvial databases, USGS NAWQA and general databases, Centennial Water and Sanitation District database and data collected in a field program. The current database contains over 57,000 water level measurements from 3,814 wells located though out the Denver Basin in one of the four principle aquifers, Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe and Laramie-Fox Hills and an overlying alluvial aquifer. These data were summarized into a single database. The database was screened to include wells that provide well location, ground surface elevation, and aquifer completion information.

The water level data were used to develop potentiometric surface contour maps for each bedrock aquifer for the years 1968, 1978, 1990 and 2002. In addition, 40 hydrographs were developed for individual wells in the bedrock aquifer that had a period of record of at least 10 years and were distributed throughout the Denver Basin. The data were used to assess the aquifer water level trends, as will be summarized. The data collected in this effort can be used for water supply planning studies at a local and regional level. This data provides scientists, planners and engineers the information they need to assess the water availability in the Denver Basin aquifer system.