[{"_1":2,"_87":-5,"_88":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,75],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},"mediaId",6500577,"mediaKeyId","5671120-05b76b030c04ba16f1f5080933f6e5f5","parentId",5671120,"title","Douglas County consultants propose zoning and conservation tools to reduce future water demand","audioSeconds",1440,"startMs",3336000,"endMs",4776000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=5671120-05b76b030c04ba16f1f5080933f6e5f5&start=3336&end=4776","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5671120-05b76b030c04ba16f1f5080933f6e5f5/thumbnail_3336000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6500577/Douglas-County/Colorado/Douglas-County-consultants-propose-zoning-and-conservation-tools-to-reduce-future-water-demand","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6500577-d50db5088b15b9f72abf96201cd38a60/orig.mp4?Expires=1776325408&Signature=kDe9TZ23pSdlgL9fm2RdcG~smqHsom6WvErZKJmcJRSi8z6uHrWgVI5BIKgXWDAXpRVArNQsd~ids7LN78JwagLfHQ02pkhhR8Q1~im2r70FAI1t3YeOqZk~bCWbikftPVIS77H2cN94rUP6LJ8x5MNe4YFOk3D3qlWcVqmFSgyIKRJ6Yp5Dy0bE~y8fWulBbiQfmEymYmAp2gjA11GFDZFne8tmuj-HN0aE9y6Jt83sSdoCxtksBwzzeRT~nFuM9AsvTonm18cIU10bwUWjOvvrzCIGUHjA6jenPXuPQbmDAQkzcH3qSOpoqR3sQ3ZBZcmCfJncQ~fXblY4N15exw__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","Douglas County","date","2025-08-22T18:02:05Z","article","Douglas County's ongoing water plan work moved from technical groundwater analysis to land-use policy on Aug. 25, when Michael Baker International and county consultants outlined draft approaches to reduce long-term water demand and align growth with available supplies.

\"Conducting some research and presenting some findings to assist the commission in really developing draft policies\" that could be used in the water plan and for regulatory updates, Ted Hyde of Michael Baker International told the commission. \"The critical nexus ... the form and function of future land uses in the county ' we know is going to significantly affect water demand.\"

Hyde and colleagues described several policy levers the county could pursue: zoning amendments to steer new development toward areas served by established water providers, minimum-lot-size limits for irrigation using private wells (they cited an Alamosa County example of 35+ acres for private outdoor irrigation), stricter landscaping and irrigation standards, incentives or requirements for rainwater harvesting and graywater reuse, and tiered county irrigation practices on county-owned land.

The presenters gave examples: Arapahoe County's irrigation standards and a Carlson-style approach where turf and high-irrigation landscaping are limited in new development; rainwater-capture barrels and larger cisterns to store rooftop runoff for outdoor irrigation; and required on-site reuse systems for certain high-water commercial uses, such as car washes or data centers. \"The idea that when you're identifying the water demand ... how conservative do or don't you make that based on what you think could be provided,\" Hyde said.

County staff and commissioners raised practical obstacles. Several speakers noted legal and institutional limits on reuse and rainwater. Harold Smethals and others said rainwater-harvesting pilot programs are time-limited and require legislative action to expand; the presenters said they will incorporate that policy context. A commissioner asked whether reclaimed or reused process water at car washes could conflict with a provider's rights; a panelist described past provider objections when reuse diminished water sales or perceived supply.

Water quality and drilling risk also drew scrutiny. Commissioners asked whether mapping and public notices could flag areas with known radium occurrences. Hyde and consultants said municipal provider testing is the most reliable dataset and can be incorporated where available, but rural domestic well water-quality sampling is inconsistent. \"Radium's everywhere in Colorado,\" a commissioner said, and noted engineers sometimes screen out hot seams when constructing deep municipal wells.

Commissioners also discussed operational feasibility and cost. Several asked whether analyses of recoverable water will incorporate economic feasibility (drilling and ongoing lift costs, energy price changes) and whether municipalities might favor deeper aquifers (e.g., Arapahoe) because they have capital to drill and operate deeper wells. Consultants said recoverability assessments will focus on physical availability; economic feasibility will be a consideration for providers and developers and will vary by actor.

Policy options the consultants indicated they will explore further include:
- Lot-size thresholds or development-location rules that limit new private-irrigation wells in areas already served by providers;
- Landscaping and irrigation code updates to require drought-tolerant plants, smart controllers, and limits on turf in medians and low-use park areas;
- Incentives and barriers analysis for rainwater harvesting and graywater reuse, including legal and provider constraints;
- Protocols for county-owned land that tier irrigation based on park function, and adopt moisture-sensitive irrigation systems;
- Targeted outreach to providers to share draft maps and quantify which municipal/district wells may be at risk from declines.

Ending: Consultants said they will include land-use language and regulatory considerations in the forthcoming draft water-plan materials and will coordinate with county staff on the legislative and provider-constraint items described at the meeting.","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","Douglas County Water Commission Meeting – August 25, 2025","oneSentenceSummary","Michael Baker International and county consultants on Aug. 25 presented land-use and conservation policy options for the Douglas County Water Plan intended to reduce long-term water demand and align new development with provider-supplied water.","taxTitle","Douglas County, Colorado","taxId",4194,"location","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":76,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":77,"_41":78,"_43":79,"_45":80,"_47":81,"_49":82,"_51":83,"_53":84,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":85,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":86,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":68,"_72":73,"_74":73},6500582,"Douglas County hears groundwater analysis showing lower physically recoverable water than legal allocations",2610,696000,3306000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=5671120-05b76b030c04ba16f1f5080933f6e5f5&start=696&end=3306","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/5671120-05b76b030c04ba16f1f5080933f6e5f5/thumbnail_696000.jpg","/articles/6500582/Douglas-County/Colorado/Douglas-County-hears-groundwater-analysis-showing-lower-physically-recoverable-water-than-legal-allocations","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6500582-d43b7a8053a35899457b5a8031411a28/orig.mp4?Expires=1776325408&Signature=DDwt2fBJnq-RBq76QLIZsuYEeU1R6I7kxYFV2BTyMcdv0hWK2Mu7FRtf9a2USYO93tbm4RU8dDDKD-fZPEqn9~97~98gSiXLcO-c2arQAPo1PELe8~tOvYOtmCSiQOdogIlTOTAngEtz092siks-5T3mHFiGNFPh3xa5nKNl5VVHuRcmn6hWgwEAd3SjgLyUfQoqddMcKPwcrMgV1g7roABA0GTxCFuyxE9k1O1z86-nYDxhk-lTGOYdaoSGfkMi8GUpAh8K~qnIkD2W~DwY6OeoMCoUevp~J0Ya5cC9n9UiKZX4JXPlVnfNchUsxhBcOSdkPKzzoZmykNjHHOW9vA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","Douglas County Water Commission members heard an update Aug. 25 on the county'wide water plan that emphasized technical mapping and a comparison between legal water allocations and what consultants consider physically recoverable groundwater.

Forest Grown Associates project manager Will Koger and Bill Fronczak of LRE Water described a multi-part analysis including a water-provider survey, a geophysical (\"Petra\") analysis of well logs, and an SB 5 (statutory) grid-based inventory of subsurface water. \"We're now working on drafts of the water supply and demand analysis and the land use policy analysis phases 1 and 2, looking to complete those by the end of the year,\" Koger said.

The consultants told commissioners why the work matters: county land-use decisions hinge on both legally adjudicated water and what can actually be pumped from the ground. \"What we're trying to do here is get the county the information that in the unincorporated areas ... how much water really is in these various aquifers?\" Fronczak said.

Fronczak summarized the technical approach. He said the team synthesized State Engineer Office (SEO) records to classify domestic (exempt) and non-domestic wells, used Petra and geophysical logs to place wells in the correct aquifer (for example, Upper Dawson, Lower Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, Fox Hills), and produced a 2-by-2-mile SB 5 grid to estimate volumetric storage across aquifers. He described comparing the state's saturated-thickness estimates to the consultants' net-sands analysis derived from logs and noted the team will subtract municipal/provider wells and pre-existing (pre-1913) diversions from the unincorporated-area total.

The team reported preliminary counts and data points discussed by commissioners: the survey of water providers had 25 completed responses including 12 members of the South Metro Water Supply Authority, three outstanding responses and two very small providers the team could not reach. Fronczak said there are roughly 9,500 wells in the Denver Basin portion of the county and \"close to 6,000 wells\" in the shallow Dawson aquifer combined (Upper and Lower Dawson where applicable). He said about 500 well logs were used in the Petra analysis to characterize net sands and aquifer tops and bottoms.

Consultants flagged a recurring finding: actual, physically recoverable water can be meaningfully less than adjudicated (decreed) amounts. \"Based upon a single well analysis with actual construction from today, you know, we're seeing that there's less physical water available than actual legal water,\" Fronczak said. He and commissioners discussed that economic and technical limits ' drilling cost, pumping depth, energy cost ' affect recoverability and that municipalities, not individual homeowners, are more likely to afford very deep wells.

The consultants showed sample cross sections and a heat map (net-saturated sands) for the Denver Basin and described the Arapahoe aquifer as \"a pretty good aquifer\" though deeper and costlier to access. They explained their 12-ohm-meter cutoff in resistivity logs as a practical threshold below which sands are unlikely to produce viable flow for extraction.

Commissioners pressed implementation questions. Harold Smethals asked whether municipal provider service areas would be excluded from the unincorporated-area availability calculations; Fronczak said service areas and extraterritorial service areas reported by providers would be treated as provided water and removed from the unincorporated tally. Trisha Bernhard asked how saturated-thickness estimates from the state would be reconciled with Petra-derived net-sand estimates; Fronczak said the team will compare both datasets and has seen both positive and negative discrepancies in prior work.

Other topical items shown in the interactive map demonstration included click-to-view SEO pump and well-construction records, color-coded maps by aquifer and by whether wells are multiply completed, and monitoring point overlays for observed water-level trends. Commissioners asked whether the map would show water-quality indicators such as radium; Fronczak replied that municipal water-provider data will be incorporated where available but that rural domestic samples are inconsistent.

No ordinance or regulatory action was taken at the meeting. Commissioners and consultants agreed the next deliverables are draft water-supply and land-use policy analyses, with the team aiming to complete drafts by the end of the year for public engagement and incorporation into a final water plan.

Ending: The commission did not vote on substantive policy at the Aug. 25 session; the consultants said they will return with written draft analyses and interactive mapping tools that county staff and commissioners can use to assess land-use proposals and provider needs.","Consultants for the Douglas County Water Plan reported progress on a water-provider survey, a groundwater analysis using state data and geophysical logs, and an interactive web map; presenters warned that physically recoverable groundwater may be substantially less than adjudicated rights in parts of the county.","actionData","errors"]

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Douglas County consultants propose zoning and conservation tools to reduce future water demand

Douglas County hears groundwater analysis showing lower physically recoverable water than legal allocations