Where will the water come from? Since there is no one source and many are finite, it’s a question that undergirds almost every building project that goes to El Paso County for approval.

With the purchase by Buc-ee’s affiliates of a parcel on Monument Hill long slated for a travel center location this month, it seems increasingly likely the project will go through El Paso County’s vetting process.

Earlier this year, the former property owners applied for and received permits from the Colorado Division of Water Resources to drill two wells for commercial use, according to state records. The two wells combined give Buc-ee’s the potential to extract a total of almost 33 acre-feet per year, or almost 11 million gallons.

In the permitting paperwork, the uses of the water “are anticipated to include various retail, office space, restaurant and other commercial uses, including public restrooms, and further including landscape irrigation surrounding such commercial development.”

The most recent public plans for a Buc-ee’s at Monument Hill, which is along Interstate 25 at the north border of El Paso County, included a 74,000-square-foot building. Buc-ee’s is a bigger affair than a regular gas station, known for having over a hundred fueling stations. The stores also advertise food, merchandise and clean restrooms. The first Colorado location was opened in 2024 in Johnstown.

Buc-ee’s developers originally presented a collaborative water approach to the nearby town of Palmer Lake, where they hoped to win approval for an annexation deal. The plan would have accounted for an estimated average daily demand of 37,300 gallons, according to an independently commissioned report, through the drilling of two new wells and the construction of a new water treatment plant. The developers would have footed the cost.

The deal eventually fell through in February, when developers withdrew their annexation application.

Over a year, the average demand described in the Palmer Lake report would theoretically exceed the annual capacity of the two new wells approved for the property by about 2 million gallons. Since no actual site development plans have yet materialized, it’s unclear how the developers might make up the difference or if water use might be different than estimated.

Palmer Lake already had two wells to supply municipal water to about 2,700 residents, an average daily demand of 149,600 gallons, according to the water report. As with neighboring Monument and other parts of unincorporated El Paso County, the main water source currently available to the town is a complex system of underground aquifers accessed through wells.

Other water providers, like Colorado Springs Utilities, rely much more on rights to surface water that originates in rivers and streams.

Groundwater has its pros and cons. While surface water is an imported commodity with Byzantine rules and big infrastructure costs, groundwater is beneath one’s feet and more simply obtained. It’s also a finite resource. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, levels in the Denver Basin, which includes a layer cake of aquifers on the Front Range, have declined more than 75 meters. While the rate of change is debated, the groundwater basin is depleting due to extraction.

Since 1986, the county’s rules on water access have reflected the reality of a depleting groundwater resource. Developers have to provide some evidence that the project they want to build is sustainable enough to keep the aquifers alive for 300 years, stricter than the 100 years required by the state.

What that actually means is tough to say, though, since experts don’t know as much as they would like. El Paso County’s last big water report was optimistic about the health of the aquifers, but based on data from a limited number of wells and water providers. Bruce Lytle, an engineering consultant, told county commissioners in October that the aquifers were still under pressure and wells were generally not losing capacity.

“It’s not changing that fast,” he said.

Concerns about the aquifers fueled some of the opposition to the project in Palmer Lake, where residents were worried that a 20% increase in the town’s water draw could speed up the dry-up.

Shana Ball, a former town trustee, argued last year at a Palmer Lake meeting that the problem was coming for the small town regardless.

“Monument has extreme development, and we’re all sticking straws in the same aquifer,” she said. “The difference is, Monument will have money to dig deeper, and Palmer Lake will not.”

El Paso County has not yet received any development plans tied to a Buc-ee’s. The county has more information about the process on its website.