Premium
Water District Maintains Dominion Over Groundwater
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.1994.tb06161.x
Subject(s) - tributary , groundwater , water resource management , irrigation district , watershed , environmental science , irrigation , hydrology (agriculture) , geography , geology , cartography , ecology , geotechnical engineering , machine learning , computer science , biology
The Willows Water District (WWD) served 4,800 single‐family‐equivalent water taps. WWD was entirely within the Little Dry Creek watershed, a tributary to the South Platte River. WWD had two sources of water: nontributary groundwater (WWD water) and interruptable contract deliveries from the Denver Water Department. An engineering analysis authorized by WWD showed that 10 percent of irrigation water in the district accrued to the creek. Thus, WWD proposed to drill three wells in the tributary alluvium of the creek to pump groundwater in amounts equal to reusable return flows attributable to WWD irrigation water to fully augment any depletions to the creek and river. The Public Service Company of Colorado (PSC) objected to the plan. The application was approved, and the PSC appealed.