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Precipitation And Evaporation In The Denver Basin

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The issue of precipitation vs. evaporation is an issue when the amount of potential evaporation is five times the amount of the annual precipitation. This creates the problem that if evaporation is expected to happen more than the annual rainfall then the recharge of the aquifer system is much more difficult to happen naturally especially with anthropogenic sources utilizing the aquifers in the Denver basin as a resource for a number of different reasons. The precipitation that does occur is often evaporated by the soils surface, or becomes runoff to streams, or vegetation uptakes it for nutrients. After this whole process a smaller portion of the precipitation will infiltrate the ground and accumulate- eventually storing in the aquifers, recharging the groundwater system (Freedman 2015). …show more content…

Precipitation is heavier in this higher southern portion of the basin, and the permeable soils derived from the Dawson Arkose consisting of alternating beds of arkosic mudstone and sandstone. The Dawson Arkose formation consists of alluvial fan and fluvial deposits that accumulate at the base of the Rocky Mountain Front ranges. This enables deep percolation and recharge to the aquifer. Recharge in this area can occur in both regional and local scales. On a regional scale water moves from the recharge areas to deeper portions of the aquifer and can spread a great distance, recharging the aquifer before discharging miles away. On a local scale, water moves from the highland recharge areas through shallow sandstone beds and discharges in nearby stream valleys. Since this local flow follows short flow paths, this water principally affects ground-water levels only in a local area (See Figure 2.0

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