The Denver Basin aquifer system is a critical water resource for growing municipal, industrial, and domestic uses along the semiarid Front Range urban corridor of Colorado. The confined bedrock aquifer system is located along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain Front Range where the mountains meet the Great Plains physiographic province. Mining, transportation, agricultural, and urban activities developed along the Front Range beginning in the 1800s, and today urban and suburban land use extends north from Denver to Fort Collins and south to Colorado Springs.
Continued population growth and the resulting need for additional water supplies in the Denver Basin and throughout the western United States emphasize the need to continually monitor and reassess the availability of groundwater resources.
Adequate monitoring and modeling of the hydrologic system are important to evaluate the effects of continued pumping on storage depletion and provide tools for future water management decisions.
Background:
In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated large-scale regional studies to provide updated groundwater-availability assessments of important principal aquifers across the United States, including the Denver Basin. This study of the Denver Basin aquifer system evaluates the hydrologic effects of continued pumping and documents an updated groundwater flow model useful for appraisal of hydrologic conditions.
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Geospatial datasets developed for a groundwater-flow model of the Denver Basin aquifer system, Colorado
MODFLOW2000 model and ZONEBUDGET computer program used to simulate the Upper Big Sandy Designated Groundwater Basin alluvial aquifer, Elbert, El Paso, and Lincoln Counties, Colorado, 2016
Below are publications associated with this project.
Groundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011–19
The quality of our Nation's waters: Water quality in the Denver Basin aquifer system, Colorado, 2003-05
Groundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011-2013
Quality of groundwater in the Denver Basin aquifer system, Colorado, 2003-5
Demonstration optimization analyses of pumping from selected Arapahoe aquifer municipal wells in the west-central Denver Basin, Colorado, 2010–2109
Groundwater availability of the Denver Basin aquifer system, Colorado
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
MODFLOW
MODFLOW is the USGS's three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference groundwater model. MODFLOW is considered an international standard for simulating and predicting groundwater conditions and groundwater/surface-water interactions.
Below are partners associated with this project.
- Overview
The Denver Basin aquifer system is a critical water resource for growing municipal, industrial, and domestic uses along the semiarid Front Range urban corridor of Colorado. The confined bedrock aquifer system is located along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain Front Range where the mountains meet the Great Plains physiographic province. Mining, transportation, agricultural, and urban activities developed along the Front Range beginning in the 1800s, and today urban and suburban land use extends north from Denver to Fort Collins and south to Colorado Springs.
Continued population growth and the resulting need for additional water supplies in the Denver Basin and throughout the western United States emphasize the need to continually monitor and reassess the availability of groundwater resources.
Adequate monitoring and modeling of the hydrologic system are important to evaluate the effects of continued pumping on storage depletion and provide tools for future water management decisions.
Background:
In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated large-scale regional studies to provide updated groundwater-availability assessments of important principal aquifers across the United States, including the Denver Basin. This study of the Denver Basin aquifer system evaluates the hydrologic effects of continued pumping and documents an updated groundwater flow model useful for appraisal of hydrologic conditions.
- Data
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Geospatial datasets developed for a groundwater-flow model of the Denver Basin aquifer system, Colorado
In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated a large-scale regional study of the Denver Basin aquifer system to evaluate the hydrologic effects of continued pumping and document an updated groundwater-flow model useful for appraisal of hydrologic conditions (Paschke, 2011). This data release includes spatial datasets used as input for a three-dimensional groundwater-flow model of the Denver BasinMODFLOW2000 model and ZONEBUDGET computer program used to simulate the Upper Big Sandy Designated Groundwater Basin alluvial aquifer, Elbert, El Paso, and Lincoln Counties, Colorado, 2016
The previously developed three-dimensional groundwater flow model (MODFLOW2000) of the Denver Basin bedrock aquifer system and overlying alluvial aquifer (https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp1770 and model archive https://doi.org/10.5066/F77W69PQ) was updated to provide quantitative estimates of groundwater flow conditions and provide a useful tool for managers to analyze temporal changes to th - Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
Groundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011–19
Municipal and domestic water users in Douglas County, Colorado, rely on groundwater from the bedrock aquifers in the Denver Basin aquifer system as part of their water supply. The four principal Denver Basin bedrock aquifers are, from shallowest to deepest, the Dawson aquifer (divided administratively into “upper” and “lower” Dawson aquifers in Douglas County), the Denver aquifer, the Arapahoe aquThe quality of our Nation's waters: Water quality in the Denver Basin aquifer system, Colorado, 2003-05
Availability and sustainability of groundwater in the Denver Basin aquifer system depend on water quantity and water quality. The Denver Basin aquifer system underlies about 7,000 square miles of the Great Plains in eastern Colorado and is the primary or sole source of water for domestic and public supply in many areas of the basin. Use of groundwater from the Denver Basin sandstone aquifers has bGroundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011-2013
More than 70 percent of the municipal water supply in the south Denver metropolitan area is provided by groundwater, and homeowners in rural areas depend solely on self-supplied groundwater for water supply. Increased groundwater withdrawal to meet the demand of the rapidly growing population is causing water levels to decline. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Rural Water AuthorQuality of groundwater in the Denver Basin aquifer system, Colorado, 2003-5
Groundwater resources from alluvial and bedrock aquifers of the Denver Basin are critical for municipal, domestic, and agricultural uses in Colorado along the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains. Rapid and widespread urban development, primarily along the western boundary of the Denver Basin, has approximately doubled the population since about 1970, and much of the population depends on groundwaDemonstration optimization analyses of pumping from selected Arapahoe aquifer municipal wells in the west-central Denver Basin, Colorado, 2010–2109
Declining water levels caused by withdrawals of water from wells in the west-central part of the Denver Basin bedrock-aquifer system have raised concerns with respect to the ability of the aquifer system to sustain production. The Arapahoe aquifer in particular is heavily used in this area. Two optimization analyses were conducted to demonstrate approaches that could be used to evaluate possible fGroundwater availability of the Denver Basin aquifer system, Colorado
The Denver Basin aquifer system is a critical water resource for growing municipal, industrial, and domestic uses along the semiarid Front Range urban corridor of Colorado. The confined bedrock aquifer system is located along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountain Front Range where the mountains meet the Great Plains physiographic province. Continued population growth and the resulting need for - Web Tools
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
MODFLOW
MODFLOW is the USGS's three-dimensional (3D) finite-difference groundwater model. MODFLOW is considered an international standard for simulating and predicting groundwater conditions and groundwater/surface-water interactions.
- Partners
Below are partners associated with this project.