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

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.