GROUND WATER PROJECTS

John Elway AutoNation - Support of Commercial Development Application

AutoNation sought to relocate an existing auto dealership to an adjacent site where a new, larger facility could be constructed. The adjacent site, currently undeveloped, had previously been an area of high ground water. Prior property owners had installed a pair of crude drainage trenches and a sump pump to maintain constant ground water levels and prevent any storm-induced flooding on site. Local neighbors, many of whom had installed unregistered irrigation wells, were claiming that the sump pump was lowering the water table offsite and thus impacting their wells.

Martin and Wood investigated the problem and made determinations as to whether the claimed linkage was valid. After lengthy field and analytical studies involving long-term monitoring of the water table, geophysical surveys, drainage basin delineation, and analytical modeling of the site, Martin and Wood's hydrogeologist provided testimony during several City of Wheat Ridge Planning Commission and City Council hearings that proved there was hydrogeologic separation between the site and the neighboring wells and that there could be no impact from the pumping on site. The City of Wheat Ridge ultimately approved the project.

Teller County - Results of County-Wide Water Supply Study

Following completion of the three-phase County-wide ground water assessment study, Martin and Wood personnel presented testimony on the results of the study to the Board of County Commissioners and Department of Health officials. The study had focused on both water quantity and quality throughout the County and the subject of increasing concerns as development in the County progressed. This was especially true with regard to the existence of hundreds of small to very small platted lots which raised issues with respect to domestic and septic system compatibility.

Martin and Wood's testimony recapped the important conclusions and recommendations of the study, including the need for far more data acquisition, well and septic system database development and maintenance, water quality sampling and testing, development of recommendations as to sustainable minimum lot sizes in the various geologic and hydrogeologic regimes in the County, and implementation of the Phase III maps developed to delineate areas of the County where ground water contamination susceptibility would be highest.