Water that comes out of the tap or spigot has to come from somewhere, and for homes in the Falls Creek subdivision northwest of Durango, that means an aquifer.
For several months, five Fort Lewis College seniors ‒ working on their capstone research project ‒ have been helping Falls Creek residents understand how the aquifer functions, said Associate Professor of geosciences Melissa Clutter.
“It’s more along the science side of things with the aquifer,” Clutter said. “What are the different climatic and geologic factors that could be influencing how the Falls Creek aquifer behaves?”
Brodey Kling, one of the student researchers, said the roughly 100 homes in Falls Creek draw water from four communal wells.
“We’ve all been looking at different aspects of the aquifer, just kind of trying to fill in some of the gaps in knowledge,” said Kling, who studied how temperature affected the aquifer.
Last month, Kling and his peers – Molly Mabee, Eryn Hilyard, Tor Holm and Quinn Osmun – presented their findings to Falls Creek homeowners.
Mabee and Holm mapped the aquifer and studied how four wells are connected. Osmun, Kling and Hilyard studied how snowpack, temperature and the 2018 416 Fire affect water entering the aquifer. The goal was to present their real-world findings to residents who rely on the aquifer.
Clutter said the Falls Creek aquifer is confined, meaning a layer of less-permeable rock lies beneath sandstone with large fractures that store water. Water is funneled into the aquifer through three canyons at the base of the La Platas in a process called recharge.
“In the Falls Creek case, it recharges quite easily because of these structures, like the fractures are connected to the surface,” Clutter said. “So when snow falls and melts, it’s able to seep into the pores and move through the fracture network back into the aquifer, which is pretty unique. That’s why it made for interesting science for the students.”
A major theme of the project was how climate change in the Southwest ‒ such as warming temperatures, sporadic snowfall and more frequent wildfires ‒ affects how much water makes it into the aquifer every year.
Osmun studied how snow and rain impact the aquifer. Using data from a nearby SNOTEL site in the La Plata Mountains – which tracks historical snow, rain and temperature data – he found snowmelt is more effective than rain at recharging the aquifer. Snow melts gradually, which seeps into the ground, whereas rain typically runs off.
“Even a bad snow year is more effective than a huge tropical storm for aquifer recharge,” Osmun said.
For Mary Ann and Barry Bryant, the homeowners who hosted the Nov. 19 presentation, collaborating with students improved their understanding of the aquifer. The Bryants moved to Falls Creek 20 years ago. They were evacuated for 12 days during the 2018 416 Fire.
Eryn Hilyard, who studied the impacts of the 416 Fire on recharge, found that burning trees released gases into the soil. When the gases cooled, they created a waxy substance that repelled water. As a result, less snowmelt soaked into the ground.
Kling also found that periods of warmer temperatures shorten the window for recharge because the snow melts more quickly. Coupled with shorter winters and more frequent wildfires, it could reduce aquifer replenishment.
The students found a baseline amount of water remains in the aquifer year after year. Still, Mary Ann Bryant said the community formed a volunteer utility company and is working collaboratively to improve water conservation ‒ including helping educate new residents.
“Our conservation efforts in our subdivision, I think, have been very successful,” Bryant said. “We are lucky because we have a lot of these fractures that hold this water. So even in bad snow years and drought years, it’s there. But we still let our residents know we still need to conserve water.”
Falls Creek residents began metering their water and charging for how much water people pump out of their wells. It has been good incentive to conserve water, which will be important in lean water years, she said.
Inviting students to study the aquifer was informative, she said.
“I am glad to see that the students are so interested in studying this kind of stuff, because it’s becoming much more of an issue everywhere in the West because of climate change,” Bryant said.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
