Colorado Water
Jefferson County is looking at requiring more extensive water reviews before allowing construction in the future, according to the Rocky Mountain News [September 4, 2004, "Water confabs on tap"]. From the article, "Jefferson County planning staff is in the process of scheduling community meetings on a controversial plan that would require proof that water is available before building is allowed in a large swath of the high country. The Board of County Commissioners decided this week to take the plan to the communities that would be affected instead of opening formal hearings as early as Sept. 8, as staff had suggested...The proposal would require anyone wanting a building permit for individual lots smaller than 12 acres to conduct an aquifer-pump test to show new wells could provide sufficient water without depleting water in existing wells pumping from the same source. Development applications that require comprehensive review, such as rezoning or platting, or those for which water use would exceed the average annual groundwater flow, would require an aquifer-pump test as well as a more comprehensive hydrogeologic study. Developments that fall under the rural-cluster category would be exempt. The 24-hour aquifer-pump test determines whether the new well would significantly draw down the reservoir that existing wells also tap into. Hydrogeologic studies gauge such things as the depth of the aquifer, recharge rate, type of overlaying rock, whether there are fractures that could hold water and how much they could contain, as well as the presence of faults that could separate groundwater reservoirs."
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