GROUND WATER SUSTAINABILITY IN GARDEN PARK VALLEY, FREMONT COUNTY, COLORADO: A CASE STUDY

Garden Park Valley is located on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Fremont County, Colorado. Historically, this area has been a strong ranching community utilizing ground water wells for irrigation, livestock, and domestic needs. Over the last five years, drilling depth of ground water wells has increased up to eight hundred feet in this region. The decline in levels of the ground water table is due in part to the continual drought within the region and the dramatic land use changes within Garden Park Valley.

Ground water sustainability is a major concern for existing ranchers and immigrants to this valley. Ground water well flow averages between 5-8 gallons per minute for livestock, irrigation, and domestic wells within the valley floor and have been as high as 15-20 gallons per minute on wells that are situated in the alluvium.

Fremont County has experienced an 11% increase in population since 1995, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. Cañon City, directly southeast of Garden Park, has experienced a 21% increase in population for the same period. Surface water from the Arkansas River supplies all of the water needs of Cañon City. Most of the recharge to the Arkansas River is provided by snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains. Rural residents rely solely on ground water provided by wells through a system of application and use administered by the state of Colorado Division of Water Resources.

In the next five years migration to rural areas within southern Colorado is expected to increase substantially. As migration continues to the Garden Park Valley, ground water sustainability will be severely impaired. Continual drought has prevented adequate recharge of the Upper Arkansas River Basin and thus prevents recharge to the tributaries that influence the water table in Garden Park Valley.