Tapped: The Denver metro region sits at the center of one of the American West’s most complex and consequential water challenges. This series examines the interconnected systems that determine how the region secures, stores, and conserves its water — while navigating the competing demands of fast‑growing urban communities and the increasingly unpredictable mountain snowpack that underpins the entire system.
Douglas County’s rapid growth has reshaped its landscape over the last two decades, transforming once-rural stretches south of the Denver metro into one of the state’s most sought-after communities.
With a population approaching 400,000 and tens of thousands more residents expected in the coming decades, the county faces a key question: how to diversify its water supply in an increasingly water-constrained future…