Nearly 40 years ago, after watching aquifers below Douglas County plunge amid fast growth and heavy use, Colorado lawmakers adopted a “sip slowly” management process that required communities such as Parker and Castle Rock to pump out fixed amounts of nonrenewable groundwater each year in an effort to make the resource last at least 100 years. Fast forward to 2020. That year, the state directed well owners to sip even more slowly, explicitly stating how much water their permits entitled them to, and requiring them to stop pumping at the end of that 100-year period if they have fully used the water to which they were entitled when the original well permits were issued. … The high court is expected to issue a ruling in the case before the end of the year, according to spokeswoman Suzanne Karrer. Under Colorado’s so-called 100-year rule, well owners can extract no more than 1% of the water under their lands each year, pumping all the water within 100 years of the issuance of their permits. 

Other groundwater articles:

• Daily Republic: State: Groundwater management improving unsettled supply
• SJV Water: Kern groundwater agencies want to push back subbasin’s probation hearing date
• Kronick: Blog: Governor issues executive order terminating emergency groundwater well permitting requirements
• The Daily Independent: Cruise: Searles Valley Minerals committed to IWV water security