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Colorado Supreme Court Protects Small‐capacity Well Owners
Publication year - 2009
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.1551-8833.2009.tb09834.x
Subject(s) - supreme court , aquifer , groundwater , foothills , hydrology (agriculture) , water supply , water resource management , law , geology , environmental science , geography , political science , environmental engineering , geotechnical engineering , cartography
The Colorado Supreme Court recently issued an opinion reaffirming the rights of existing small‐capacity domestic well owners. The decision, Buffalo Park Development Co. v. Mountain Mutual Reservoir Co., 195 P.3d 674 (Colo. 2008), involved a dispute between a developer in the foothills near Denver, Colorado, and the neighboring homeowners who obtain their water supply from small‐capacity domestic wells in a fractured rock aquifer. The developer sought court approval for a plan to pump 205 new wells in the same area and to replace depletions from those wells to the hydrologically connected surface water sources in the area, including Turkey Creek and Bear Creek. However, the developer did not propose to directly augment depletions to the groundwater aquifers used by the homeowners in the area.