Rural Douglas County Groundwater Network
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 Authority of Douglas County, began a study in 2011 to assess the groundwater resources of the Denver Basin aquifers within Douglas County, Colorado. The primary purpose of this study was to monitor changes in the groundwater levels of the bedrock aquifers of the Denver Basin within rural Douglas County. To better assess the water resources of the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers, a groundwater monitoring network was established in 2011. More than 500 manual and 213,900 automated water-level measurements collected from the 36 domestic-well network between April 2011 and June 2013 showed water-level declines in all aquifers.
History of water-level data collection in the Denver Basin:
- The first comprehensive measurements of water levels across the basin were made by the USGS from 1956 to 1963 and published by McConaghy and others (1964).
- A second comprehensive set of water-level data for the bedrock and alluvial aquifers through 1981 was published by Major and others (1983).
- Routine water-level measurements by the USGS continued through the 1980s, were incorporated into the Robson (1987) groundwater flow model, and are available through the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/co/nwis/gw).
- The USGS NWIS data were used for model calibration by recent USGS modeling efforts (Paschke, 2010). A water-level monitoring network of approximately 278 wells was established in the 1980s by the Colorado Divison of Water Resources, and data from that network are published in annual data reports.
- A compilation and bibliography of all available water-level data for bedrock and alluvial aquifers through 2004 was published as part of the South Platte Decision Support System.

Site identification number |
Well common name |
Latitude (NAD 83) (degrees, minutes, seconds) |
Longitude (NAD 83) (degrees, minutes, seconds) |
Elevation of LSD (ft above NAVD 88) |
Well depth (ft bls) |
Total measurements |
Number of static measurements |
Number of measurements with status “R” |
Number of measurements with status “S” |
Number of measurements with status “P” |
Mean depth to groundwater below LSD (ft) |
Mean groundwater- level elevation (ft above NAVD 88) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
391229104421901 | UDAW 1a | 39°12′22.40″ | −104°42′18.79″ | 6,934.52 | 320 | 43 | 35 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 92.16 | 6,842.36 |
392856104424101 | UDAW 2 | 39°28′51.1″ | −104°42′41.81″ | 6,284.27 | 310 | 24 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 141.93 | 6,142.34 |
392412104434201 | UDAW 3 | 39°24′00.07″ | −104°43′41.47″ | 6,414.87 | 283 | 40 | 34 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 156.03 | 6,258.84 |
392934104414901 | UDAW 4 | 39°29′28.68″ | −104°41′45.98″ | 6,267.98 | 300 | 41 | 35 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 120.66 | 6,147.32 |
392149104415501 | UDAW 5 | 39°21′42.84″ | −104°41′53.47″ | 6,501.66 | 350 | 40 | 22 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 140.96 | 6,360.70 |
392441104394901 | UDAW 6 | 39°24′35.49″ | −104°39′46.81″ | 6,590.31 | 400 | 24 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 216.39 | 6,373.92 |
391658104453101 | UDAW7b | 39°16′51.02″ | −104°45′25.37″ | 6,808.79 | 302 | 22 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 154.55 | 6,654.24 |
393252104434701 | UDAW 8c | 39°32′44.61″ | −104°43′40.56″ | 6,195.89 | 213 | 22 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 168.79 | 6,027.21 |
393226104394401 | UDAW 9 | 39°32′18.18″ | −104°40′09.34″ | 6,285.29 | 314 | 43 | 35 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 211.31 | 6,073.98 |
392916104423601 | UDAW10 | 39°29′10.65″ | −104°42′34.58″ | 6,288.97 | 320 | 42 | 37 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 114.21 | 6,174.76 |
390756104453801 | LDAW 2 | 39°07′50.15″ | −104°45′35.11″ | 7,278.15 | 180 | 39 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 68.19 | 7,209.96 |
390811104453801 | LDAW 3 | 39°08′05.45″ | −104°45′36.86″ | 7,308.07 | 300 | 24 | 18 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 124.78 | 7,183.29 |
392318104424601 | LDAW 4 | 39°23′13.64″ | −104°42′46.06″ | 6,501.52 | 723 | 24 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 565.68 | 5,935.84 |
392851104450101 | LDAW 5 | 39°28′44.38″ | −104°45′02.28″ | 6,021.79 | 530 | 24 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 207.48 | 5,814.31 |
391143104482501 | LDAW 6 | 39°11′37.67″ | −104°48′22.89″ | 7,085.07 | 205 | 37 | 30 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 41.35 | 7,043.72 |
391654104464501 | LDAW 7 | 39°16′48.55″ | −104°46′46.54″ | 6,676.78 | 345 | 50 | 45 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 87.61 | 6,589.17 |
392949104523401 | LDAW 8 | 39°29′41.31″ | −104°52′33.56″ | 6,235.80 | 468 | 23 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 386.4 | 5,849.40 |
393239104452901 | LDAW 9 | 39°32′34.88″ | −104°45′33.98″ | 5,908.71 | 285 | 24 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 165.49 | 5,743.22 |
393021104533101 | LDAW 10 | 39°30′14.61″ | −104°53′30.83″ | 6,324.88 | 620 | 24 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 480.37 | 5,844.51 |
391257104530201 | LDAW 11 | 39°12′49.86″ | −104°53′00.55″ | 6,799.61 | 240 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 89.66 | 6,709.95 |
393259104491001 | GRNDAW 4 | 39°32′25″ | −104°48′49″ | 5,816.50 | 280 | 47 | 42 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 54.11 | 5,762.39 |
391656104473001 | DENV 1 | 39°16′43.87″ | −104°47′28.54″ | 6,783.59 | 600 | 46 | 42 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 151.3 | 6,632.29 |
391929104574101 | DENV 2 | 39°19′22.18″ | −104°57′40.27″ | 6,268.94 | 300 | 45 | 29 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 105.08 | 6,163.86 |
391245104525501 | DENV 3 | 39°12′38.72″ | −104°52′56.68″ | 6,822.46 | 665 | 22 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 443.17 | 6,379.29 |
392115104553501 | DENV 4 | 39°21′09.46″ | −104°55′32.44″ | 6,376.53 | 480 | 25 | 16 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 230.04 | 6,146.49 |
392235105003001 | DENV 5 | 39°22′29.42″ | −105°00′30.46″ | 6,317.29 | 380 | 46 | 19 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 192.87 | 6,124.42 |
393040105003201 | DENV 6 | 39°30′32.91″ | −105°00′32.78″ | 5,716.55 | 320 | 40 | 31 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 225.12 | 5,491.43 |
391212104473801 | DENV 7 | 39°12′02.73″ | −104°47′39.07″ | 7,003.66 | 900 | 24 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 408.37 | 6,595.29 |
390755104454001 | DENV 8 | 39°07′50.14″ | −104°45′40.26″ | 7,265.13 | 1,300 | 23 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 261.84 | 7,003.29 |
391936104570101 | DENV 10 | 39°19′31.13″ | −104°57′00.44″ | 6,410.74 | 404 | 24 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 234.42 | 6,176.32 |
393330104450701 | DENV 11 | 39°33′22.42″ | −104°45′07.66″ | 6,058.29 | 610 | 24 | 22 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 353.11 | 5,705.18 |
393252104492101 | GRNDEV 3 | 39°32′51.83″ | −104°49′23.15″ | 5,864.18 | 463 | 48 | 40 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 136.28 | 5,727.90 |
392853105015001 | ARAP 1 | 39°28′46.00″ | −105°01′48.83″ | 5,789.08 | 730 | 23 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 547.11 | 5,241.97 |
393120105003101 | ARAP 2 | 39°31′12.83″ | −105°00′30.08″ | 5,750.03 | 735 | 23 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 365.42 | 5,384.61 |
392522105015001 | LARA 1 | 39°25′15.92″ | −105°01′49.28″ | 6,169.43 | 601 | 27 | 8 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 120.92 | 6,048.51 |
392522105015401 | LARA 2 | 39°25′15.20″ | −105°01′53.18″ | 6,155.85 | 480 | 24 | 10 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 100.52 | 6,055.33 |
[Well data can be downloaded using the site identification numbers in the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (NWIS) database https://doi.org/10.5066/F7P55KJN. See figure 2 for well locations. Bold indicates site instrumented with a pressure transducer. NAD 83, North American Datum of 1983; LSD, land-surface datum; ft, foot; NAVD 88, North American Vertical Datum of 1988; bls, below land surface; “R,” recently pumped; “S,” nearby pumping; “P,” pumping; UDAW, upper Dawson aquifer well;°, degrees; ′, minutes; ″, seconds; LDAW, lower Dawson aquifer well; GRNDAW, Grandview Estates, lower Dawson aquifer well; DENV, Denver aquifer well; GRNDEV, Grandview Estates, Denver aquifer well; ARAP, Arapahoe aquifer well; LARA, Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer well]
*Well dropped from routine monitoring in April 2019.
*Well dropped from routine monitoring in February 2018.
*Well dropped from routine monitoring in February 2017.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Elbert County Groundwater Network
South Platte Decision Support System (SPDSS) Well Installation and Aquifer Testing in Shallow Alluvial and Bedrock Aquifers, Adams County, Colorado
Groundwater Data for Colorado
Below are publications associated with this project.
Groundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011–19
Groundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011-2013
Design and Installation of a Groundwater Monitoring-Well Network in the High Plains Aquifer, Colorado
Depth to water, saturated thickness, and other geospatial datasets used in the design and installation of a groundwater monitoring-well network in the High Plains Aquifer, Colorado
Below are partners associated with this project.
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 Authority of Douglas County, began a study in 2011 to assess the groundwater resources of the Denver Basin aquifers within Douglas County, Colorado. The primary purpose of this study was to monitor changes in the groundwater levels of the bedrock aquifers of the Denver Basin within rural Douglas County. To better assess the water resources of the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers, a groundwater monitoring network was established in 2011. More than 500 manual and 213,900 automated water-level measurements collected from the 36 domestic-well network between April 2011 and June 2013 showed water-level declines in all aquifers.
History of water-level data collection in the Denver Basin:
- The first comprehensive measurements of water levels across the basin were made by the USGS from 1956 to 1963 and published by McConaghy and others (1964).
- A second comprehensive set of water-level data for the bedrock and alluvial aquifers through 1981 was published by Major and others (1983).
- Routine water-level measurements by the USGS continued through the 1980s, were incorporated into the Robson (1987) groundwater flow model, and are available through the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/co/nwis/gw).
- The USGS NWIS data were used for model calibration by recent USGS modeling efforts (Paschke, 2010). A water-level monitoring network of approximately 278 wells was established in the 1980s by the Colorado Divison of Water Resources, and data from that network are published in annual data reports.
- A compilation and bibliography of all available water-level data for bedrock and alluvial aquifers through 2004 was published as part of the South Platte Decision Support System.

Site identification number |
Well common name |
Latitude (NAD 83) (degrees, minutes, seconds) |
Longitude (NAD 83) (degrees, minutes, seconds) |
Elevation of LSD (ft above NAVD 88) |
Well depth (ft bls) |
Total measurements |
Number of static measurements |
Number of measurements with status “R” |
Number of measurements with status “S” |
Number of measurements with status “P” |
Mean depth to groundwater below LSD (ft) |
Mean groundwater- level elevation (ft above NAVD 88) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
391229104421901 | UDAW 1a | 39°12′22.40″ | −104°42′18.79″ | 6,934.52 | 320 | 43 | 35 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 92.16 | 6,842.36 |
392856104424101 | UDAW 2 | 39°28′51.1″ | −104°42′41.81″ | 6,284.27 | 310 | 24 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 141.93 | 6,142.34 |
392412104434201 | UDAW 3 | 39°24′00.07″ | −104°43′41.47″ | 6,414.87 | 283 | 40 | 34 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 156.03 | 6,258.84 |
392934104414901 | UDAW 4 | 39°29′28.68″ | −104°41′45.98″ | 6,267.98 | 300 | 41 | 35 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 120.66 | 6,147.32 |
392149104415501 | UDAW 5 | 39°21′42.84″ | −104°41′53.47″ | 6,501.66 | 350 | 40 | 22 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 140.96 | 6,360.70 |
392441104394901 | UDAW 6 | 39°24′35.49″ | −104°39′46.81″ | 6,590.31 | 400 | 24 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 216.39 | 6,373.92 |
391658104453101 | UDAW7b | 39°16′51.02″ | −104°45′25.37″ | 6,808.79 | 302 | 22 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 154.55 | 6,654.24 |
393252104434701 | UDAW 8c | 39°32′44.61″ | −104°43′40.56″ | 6,195.89 | 213 | 22 | 19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 168.79 | 6,027.21 |
393226104394401 | UDAW 9 | 39°32′18.18″ | −104°40′09.34″ | 6,285.29 | 314 | 43 | 35 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 211.31 | 6,073.98 |
392916104423601 | UDAW10 | 39°29′10.65″ | −104°42′34.58″ | 6,288.97 | 320 | 42 | 37 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 114.21 | 6,174.76 |
390756104453801 | LDAW 2 | 39°07′50.15″ | −104°45′35.11″ | 7,278.15 | 180 | 39 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 68.19 | 7,209.96 |
390811104453801 | LDAW 3 | 39°08′05.45″ | −104°45′36.86″ | 7,308.07 | 300 | 24 | 18 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 124.78 | 7,183.29 |
392318104424601 | LDAW 4 | 39°23′13.64″ | −104°42′46.06″ | 6,501.52 | 723 | 24 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 565.68 | 5,935.84 |
392851104450101 | LDAW 5 | 39°28′44.38″ | −104°45′02.28″ | 6,021.79 | 530 | 24 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 207.48 | 5,814.31 |
391143104482501 | LDAW 6 | 39°11′37.67″ | −104°48′22.89″ | 7,085.07 | 205 | 37 | 30 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 41.35 | 7,043.72 |
391654104464501 | LDAW 7 | 39°16′48.55″ | −104°46′46.54″ | 6,676.78 | 345 | 50 | 45 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 87.61 | 6,589.17 |
392949104523401 | LDAW 8 | 39°29′41.31″ | −104°52′33.56″ | 6,235.80 | 468 | 23 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 386.4 | 5,849.40 |
393239104452901 | LDAW 9 | 39°32′34.88″ | −104°45′33.98″ | 5,908.71 | 285 | 24 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 165.49 | 5,743.22 |
393021104533101 | LDAW 10 | 39°30′14.61″ | −104°53′30.83″ | 6,324.88 | 620 | 24 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 480.37 | 5,844.51 |
391257104530201 | LDAW 11 | 39°12′49.86″ | −104°53′00.55″ | 6,799.61 | 240 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 89.66 | 6,709.95 |
393259104491001 | GRNDAW 4 | 39°32′25″ | −104°48′49″ | 5,816.50 | 280 | 47 | 42 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 54.11 | 5,762.39 |
391656104473001 | DENV 1 | 39°16′43.87″ | −104°47′28.54″ | 6,783.59 | 600 | 46 | 42 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 151.3 | 6,632.29 |
391929104574101 | DENV 2 | 39°19′22.18″ | −104°57′40.27″ | 6,268.94 | 300 | 45 | 29 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 105.08 | 6,163.86 |
391245104525501 | DENV 3 | 39°12′38.72″ | −104°52′56.68″ | 6,822.46 | 665 | 22 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 443.17 | 6,379.29 |
392115104553501 | DENV 4 | 39°21′09.46″ | −104°55′32.44″ | 6,376.53 | 480 | 25 | 16 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 230.04 | 6,146.49 |
392235105003001 | DENV 5 | 39°22′29.42″ | −105°00′30.46″ | 6,317.29 | 380 | 46 | 19 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 192.87 | 6,124.42 |
393040105003201 | DENV 6 | 39°30′32.91″ | −105°00′32.78″ | 5,716.55 | 320 | 40 | 31 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 225.12 | 5,491.43 |
391212104473801 | DENV 7 | 39°12′02.73″ | −104°47′39.07″ | 7,003.66 | 900 | 24 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 408.37 | 6,595.29 |
390755104454001 | DENV 8 | 39°07′50.14″ | −104°45′40.26″ | 7,265.13 | 1,300 | 23 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 261.84 | 7,003.29 |
391936104570101 | DENV 10 | 39°19′31.13″ | −104°57′00.44″ | 6,410.74 | 404 | 24 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 234.42 | 6,176.32 |
393330104450701 | DENV 11 | 39°33′22.42″ | −104°45′07.66″ | 6,058.29 | 610 | 24 | 22 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 353.11 | 5,705.18 |
393252104492101 | GRNDEV 3 | 39°32′51.83″ | −104°49′23.15″ | 5,864.18 | 463 | 48 | 40 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 136.28 | 5,727.90 |
392853105015001 | ARAP 1 | 39°28′46.00″ | −105°01′48.83″ | 5,789.08 | 730 | 23 | 22 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 547.11 | 5,241.97 |
393120105003101 | ARAP 2 | 39°31′12.83″ | −105°00′30.08″ | 5,750.03 | 735 | 23 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 365.42 | 5,384.61 |
392522105015001 | LARA 1 | 39°25′15.92″ | −105°01′49.28″ | 6,169.43 | 601 | 27 | 8 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 120.92 | 6,048.51 |
392522105015401 | LARA 2 | 39°25′15.20″ | −105°01′53.18″ | 6,155.85 | 480 | 24 | 10 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 100.52 | 6,055.33 |
[Well data can be downloaded using the site identification numbers in the U.S. Geological Survey National Water Information System (NWIS) database https://doi.org/10.5066/F7P55KJN. See figure 2 for well locations. Bold indicates site instrumented with a pressure transducer. NAD 83, North American Datum of 1983; LSD, land-surface datum; ft, foot; NAVD 88, North American Vertical Datum of 1988; bls, below land surface; “R,” recently pumped; “S,” nearby pumping; “P,” pumping; UDAW, upper Dawson aquifer well;°, degrees; ′, minutes; ″, seconds; LDAW, lower Dawson aquifer well; GRNDAW, Grandview Estates, lower Dawson aquifer well; DENV, Denver aquifer well; GRNDEV, Grandview Estates, Denver aquifer well; ARAP, Arapahoe aquifer well; LARA, Laramie-Fox Hills aquifer well]
*Well dropped from routine monitoring in April 2019.
*Well dropped from routine monitoring in February 2018.
*Well dropped from routine monitoring in February 2017.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Elbert County Groundwater Network
South Platte Decision Support System (SPDSS) Well Installation and Aquifer Testing in Shallow Alluvial and Bedrock Aquifers, Adams County, Colorado
Groundwater Data for Colorado
Below are publications associated with this project.
Groundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011–19
Groundwater levels in the Denver Basin bedrock aquifers of Douglas County, Colorado, 2011-2013
Design and Installation of a Groundwater Monitoring-Well Network in the High Plains Aquifer, Colorado
Depth to water, saturated thickness, and other geospatial datasets used in the design and installation of a groundwater monitoring-well network in the High Plains Aquifer, Colorado
Below are partners associated with this project.