Years of strategic water right acquisitions have put the Parker Water and Sanitation District in good shape for the future, but the purchases raise a big conundrum: how to get the water back to town. District officials have secured water in the South Platte River and Cherry Creek and remain active in pursuing new resources to wean themselves off deep underground aquifers that are being depleted at a mind-numbing pace. New water resources will eventually help fill the 72,000-acre-foot Rueter-Hess Reservoir, which is being built in Newlin Gulch southwest of Parker. An acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons, roughly enough to supply four families with water for one year. The reservoir is scheduled to be completed in less than three years, and decision-makers are grappling with the immense task and astronomical cost of piping the water back to Parker.

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