Subdivision's residents balk at more drilling

Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 25, 2007 at midnight

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Bear Mountain Vista homeowners are well aware why Jefferson County is weighing ways to govern new wells in mountain subdivisions.

The 1,000-acre subdivision south of Evergreen features broad meadows, mountain views, a wealth of wildlife and several hundred homes with individual wells.

It also features growing concern over shrinking water supplies.

Developer Ron Lewis had asked the state water court for permission to drill nine new wells on less than 35 acres within Bear Mountain Vista. But adjacent -homeowners concerned about their own wells objected.

The case is pending before the Colorado Supreme Court.

Unlike the vast underground water basins that Douglas County depends on, Jefferson County's mountain residents tap into unpredictable caches of water in random fractures of bedrock.

"Drilling wells here is like going to Las Vegas and shooting craps," said Jim Peterson, a former federal geologist and president of the Bear Mountain Homeowners Association.

Peterson said some homeowners in his area had monitored the flows from their wells since the late 1990s.

"We have evidence that the water levels were declining by up to hundreds of feet and there'd been well failures near us and around us," he said.

Peterson said the wells that failed were redrilled and some went to 1,100 feet before finding enough water for showers, washing dishes, cooking and laundry.

The prospect of new wells tapping into the same declining levels of water was troubling, so the homeowners went to water court, which agreed with them in August 2006.

"Lewis provided no evidence that there was enough water to supply the new homes," said Peterson.

Lewis, who for 50 years has developed mountain subdivisions that rely on groundwater, appealed to the state's high court.

"Not all of the wells up there declined. In some wells, the water levels rose," he said.

Nevertheless, Water Court Judge Jonathan Hayes denied Lewis well permits for his Cragmont subdivision, too, which now relies on water trucked from Bailey to a central cistern.

Lewis also is fighting the county's proposed new well regulations.

"The county should keep its nose out of the water business," he said.

Today, the most productive wells in Lewis' subdivisions are 1,000 feet deep or more - made possible in part due to new drilling technology.

"I've drilled 250 wells in Bear Mountain," said Lewis. "Each home I know of has well water from a limited supply to more than enough."

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