What is in your water?

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Image from http://www.spacetoday.org/

Answer the poll question on the right. This question was on the TV show 'Are you smarter than a 5th grader", it was answered incorrectly by the contestant a lawyer.


What percent of water on earth is freshwater?


Link to show http://www.fox.com/areyousmarter/features/



Answer to question:


The earth’s surface is 70 percent water; of this only 3 percent is fresh water of which three quarters is locked in polar ice caps, less than 1 percent is easily accessible by humans (“Water availability”,1998).



Source:


Water availability and use. Population reports, (1998)1 (26). Retrieved July 8, 2008.
Academic search premier database.

Population growth and projected water shortages

The Colorado Water Conservation Board forecasts “by 2030, 2.8 million more people are expected to call Colorado home; water demands will increase 53 percent during this time” (CWCB, 2006). Depletion of the Denver Basin Aquifer will continue, while management tools exist to reduce the impact. Wells will continue to be drilled into the basin, further exasperating the problem of drawdown and low yield while raising costs of water production. Less desirable and costly water will need to be used to satisfy demand. Surface storage infrastructure needs to be expanded as population grows to provide renewable resources, especially during droughts.

This link is the source and contains more info: http://cwcb.state.co.us/NR/rdonlyres/C6B35CFB-1209-4413-AABC-749E7894136F/0/SWSI8pgReportSummary3.pdf

What can be done?

Surface water storage filled with renewable water can reduce reliance on the Denver Basin Aquifer. Surface water storage infrastructure can take decades for approval after environmental studies and permit reviews. One such project is Reuter-Hess Reservoir in Parker,CO. the expanded project will hold 72,000 acre-feet of water (An ac-ft = ~ 326,000 gallons), which will make it approximately 1.5 times the size of Cherry Creek Reservoir (Michlewicz, 2008). In addition to providing water for a growing community the reservoir will offer a buffer from the endless rooftops sprouting up across Douglas County. Partnering with Parker Water are Castle Rock, Castle Pines North and Stonegate, the partners will share reservoir storage and costs for the project. The reservoir will be filled with treated water from waste water plants and renewable Cherry Creek alluvial (shallow wells along the creek) in addition to storm events on Cherry Creek. The storm events will be captured at a diversion dam on Cherry Creek and them pumped uphill to the reservoir.

Works cited:

Michlewicz, C. (2008, May 01). Reservoir is key to county’s future. Retrieved June 8,
2008, from http://www.parkerchronicle.com/site/tab8.cfm?newsid=1965399
8&BRD=2713&PAG=461&dept_id=559193&rfi=6

Images used with permission from Parker Water and Sanitation District

Arapahoe wells dropping 12 feet a year!

Data from the Colorado Division of Water Resources indicates that the Arapahoe Aquifer is dropping 12 feet a year (Porttoff 2006). The data is from 65 individual wells. As the aquifer drops the yield from the wells also drop. An example is from Parker where Arapahoe wells produced 900 gallons per minute now produce only 600 gallons per minute. Water resources consultants Halepaska and Assoc. state that less than one percent of the aquifer has been depleted claiming, “the conundrum is that a very small portion of the water in storage is being used, yet water levels are dropping thirty feet per year” (Halepaska, 2003). The depletion of the aquifer is expected to continue until renewable sources of water are found.

Works cited:
Pottorff, E. (2006). Ground water levels in the Denver basin bedrock aquifers. Colorado
Division of Water Resources. Denver, CO.
John C. Halepaska and Associates, (2003). Geology and ground water resources of the South metro area of the Denver basin, Colorado. Littleton, CO

Depletion of the Denver Aquifer

Click image to enlarge

The Denver basin aquifer is primarily made up of four different aquifers: Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe and Laramie-Fox Hill formations. An aquifer is a water bearing layer of various thickness made up of porous material such as gravel or sandstone. The deep water aquifers are not recharged with rain or snow; the water is available only once, nonrenewable. Of these, the Arapahoe is the highest yielding, pumping three hundred plus, gallons per minute (gpm) and provides quality water, this is the source water that Deep Rock Water uses for bottling (Pottoroff, 2006). The basin covers an area of more than 6,700 square miles, west to the foothills, north to Southern Wyoming, east to Limon and south to Colorado Springs (Pottoroff, 2006).

Works cited:

Pottorff, E. (2006). Ground water levels in the Denver basin bedrock aquifers. Colorado
Division of Water Resources. Denver, CO.
Images used with permission from Parker Water and Sanitaion.