Adams County releases draft water master plan as drought tightens and groundwater risks emerge

Adams County staff and consultants outlined a draft Water Master Plan at a study session, saying the county can meet projected 2040 water demand but only with careful planning, new data and policy changes. Consultants presented a land‑use‑based demand model and a Petra groundwater analysis focused on the Denver Basin aquifer, which supplies much of the county’s unincorporated eastern areas. The model projects that current supplies could meet countywide 2040 demand but identified areas where well yields have already declined and where the county’s nonrenewable Denver Basin aquifer will not replenish on a human timescale.

Jenny Hall, the county’s community and economic development director, said the plan is an informational briefing and does not require action today; the county expects to finalize and adopt the plan by late spring or early summer. Consultants said the plan reflects more than 18 months of stakeholder outreach with more than 70 water and sanitation districts and summarized public input emphasizing the need to balance growth with water priorities and to protect agricultural lands from buy‑and‑dry conversions.

The technical findings included a projected increase of incorporated‑area water demand as annexations and municipal growth continue, and a possible 18% reduction in agricultural demand tied to conversion of irrigated lands. Consultants said 60% of county water providers rely on groundwater, about 34% on wholesale contracts and 6% are primarily surface‑water reliant. They underscored that Denver Basin supplies are largely nonrenewable and that the county’s 300‑year adequacy standard is more conservative than the state’s 100‑year assumption; when adjusted to a 300‑year basis, the county’s modeled supply roughly aligns with the projected 2040 demand.

Based on those findings, the plan recommends 13 strategies grouped under 10 challenge areas. Near‑term, time‑sensitive actions include maintaining the plan, establishing dedicated county water staff or a coordinator to convene providers, updating development codes (including turf and water adequacy standards), creating a groundwater overlay for Denver Basin areas and installing observation wells to improve real‑time information. Consultants noted many small and midsize water providers lack current demand forecasting and would benefit from regional modeling and grant assistance.

Commissioners pressed several policy tradeoffs: whether to encourage municipal annexation so new housing ties to renewable supplies, how to protect agricultural water and how aggressively to require developers to demonstrate long‑term water availability. Several commissioners signaled support for a county coordinator role and for integrating water strategies into the ongoing development‑code overhaul, while recognizing that many actions will require additional staff capacity and technical support.

Next steps: staff will refine the draft plan based on commissioner feedback, prepare materials for a public adoption hearing in the coming months and map recommended actions to implementation tasks and potential funding sources.