Douglas County Water Commission hears kickoff of countywide water plan; consultants outline data, outreach and timeline

The Douglas County Water Commission on Feb. 24 heard a kickoff presentation from consultants hired to prepare a countywide water plan and voted to approve the minutes of its Jan. 27 meeting.

Consultants said the plan will analyze county water supplies and projected demands, identify supply–demand gaps, and recommend strategies and policies for closing any gaps. “We're really excited to be here today and to get started on this water plan for Douglas County,” said Mike Worsak, Forsgren, at the start of the presentation. The consultant team described a technical work program, repeated engagement touchpoints with the commission, and several public outreach events.

Why it matters: Douglas County faces a mix of water systems — individual wells, community wells, provider systems and Denver Basin groundwater — whose sustainability depends on how growth, land use and conservation measures are managed. The plan will provide a technical basis for policy decisions and potential code changes the county may consider.

Consultants’ scope and methods Forsgren and partners described three main technical thrusts: data collection and mapping, groundwater and Denver Basin analysis, and a supply–demand gap analysis that would inform recommended strategies. “We're going to be going through some introductions and then of our project team and then we'll also be going through our scope of services and talk a little bit about some of the goals and the purpose of the plan,” Worsak said. The consultants said demand projections will be prepared for current conditions and increments through about 2030, 2040 and 2050.

Bill Fronczak of LRE Water said the first technical task will be compiling public and provider data — well logs and permits from the Division of Water Resources (DWR), USGS reports, water-provider plans and state databases — and visualizing the results in an interactive GIS: “We're going to collect data from the county, whether it be electronically or if there's reports. From DWR, obviously, wells, Denver Basin, adjudications, water levels ... USGS ... water districts, water providers, community well ...”

For the Denver Basin, the consultants said they will use the Petra modeling platform to synthesize geophysical logs and better represent subsurface layers and saturated thicknesses; Fronczak said Petra has been accepted by the state in prior county studies. “We will look at the surface in alluvial water, and then we're gonna focus on Denver Basin using the Petra model that we've used in the past, and the state's really liked it,” he said.

Public engagement and stakeholder outreach Anne Kuchenmeister of Michael Baker International described a public engagement program combining digital tools, stakeholder focus groups and in-person open houses. She said the consultants will coordinate with county communications staff on a project landing page and an online engagement hub on the Social Pinpoint platform to run surveys, polls and mapping exercises and to collect signups for updates. “We're going to work with Douglas County and their communications staff to first have a landing page on Douglas County's website specific to the project,” Kuchenmeister said.

The team proposed three public open houses (the first likely virtual or hybrid), recurring stakeholder-group meetings for in-depth dialogue, and targeted focus groups for community-well owners and larger water users. The engagement work will produce an engagement summary showing how public input informed recommendations.

Land use and policy analysis Consultants said the land-use component will start with the county comprehensive plan and zoning code to quantify growth-driven demand under alternative scenarios. A land-use analyst said the work will identify potential regulatory or incentive levers — for example, landscaping standards or lot-size guidance — to align development expectations with available supply.

Schedule, deliverables and next steps The consultants described a roughly 18-month effort with periodic returns to the Water Commission. They proposed producing a series of technical memoranda (the team cited about six) on outreach, provider descriptions, land-use/growth scenarios, supplies, groundwater analysis and recommended policies; each memorandum would be presented to the commission for input before finalization. The first commission update was projected for April with a public meeting as early as May and draft materials to county decision-makers the following summer.

Grants and coordination County staff member Katie told the commission that staff is preparing grant applications to help fund parts of the effort. “One of the informational items attached to the agenda is an overview of the grants that we plan to to start applying for,” Katie said. Commissioners and presenters also discussed coordination with regional suppliers (for example, City of Denver and Aurora), South Metro Water Supply Authority and other local providers.

Commission discussion Commission members asked about outreach to private well owners and whether the consultants had lists for direct messaging; Tricia Bernhardt indicated she could share a Division of Water Resources-derived list of individual well owners in the county. Commissioners asked whether the engagement platform would allow interactive polling and comment; Kuchenmeister confirmed Social Pinpoint will be used for interactive polling and mapping. Commissioners also asked about scenario planning for different growth rates; the team said it will analyze multiple growth scenarios (high/medium/low) and work with the state demographer and water providers for inputs.

Formal action The commission approved the minutes of its Jan. 27 meeting by voice vote. The motion and second were recorded during the meeting and the chair announced the motion passed after the ayes; no roll-call tally of individual votes was taken and no named dissent was recorded.

Next steps and adjournment Consultants said their immediate next steps are finalizing stakeholder lists, issuing a provider data questionnaire, starting GIS map development, and coordinating with county communications on the first public outreach materials. The commission adjourned at about 4:58 p.m.

This account reflects remarks and descriptions made during the Feb. 24 Water Commission meeting and consultant presentations.