County water report

Denver County Water Report

Drinking-water compliance, watershed health, monitoring records, and river conditions for Denver County, Colorado.

Water grade

Water score

71.8

State rank

#10

of 64

Health violations

EPA SDWIS, 5-year lookback

Watershed impaired

39.1%

243 water bodies assessed

Monitoring sites

28,462 recent measurements

Live streamflow

145%

CHERRY CREEK AT DENVER, CO.

Water at a glance

Key Water Indicators for Denver County

EPA SDWIS

Safety Grade

Score: 71.8 / 100

EPA SDWIS

Active Violations

5-year health-based lookback

EPA ATTAINS

Watershed Health

39% impaired

243 bodies assessed

USGS NWIS

Streamflow Snapshot

145% of mean

CHERRY CREEK AT DENVER, CO.

EPA WQP

Monitoring Sites

28,462 recent readings

Source: EPA SDWIS · Safe Drinking Water Information System

Drinking Water Compliance

Compliance grade

Based on EPA SDWIS compliance history.

Water score

Higher scores indicate cleaner recent compliance records.

71.8/100

Health violations

Health-based violations

Violations per 100K served

0.2

Population-normalized SDWIS rate

Data center water stress

Denver County has 6 facilities in the DCWSI dataset.

ByCounty's DCWSI ranks this county #57 nationally by combining its water score with mapped data center density.

DCWSI

73.5

0-100 index

Facility count

76.0 density percentile

Discharge estimate

Not reported

EPA CWA fields where available

Water vs median

+21.8

Compared with US county median

Named operators

CoreSiteFlexential

Mapped facilities

CORESITE - DE1
DENVER · CoreSite
EPA ECHO
CORESITE REAL ESTATE DE3 - CORESITE DE3
DENVER · CoreSite
EPA ECHO
Flexential Denver - Downtown
Denver · Flexential
OSM
Insurance Exchange Building
Denver
OSM
Pearl Plaza Office Building
Denver
OSM
SIDUS GROUP - DENVER DATA CENTER
DENVER
EPA ECHO

See the Denver County data-center report Review methodology

Data Center Water Budget Calculator

Estimate daily water use for a hypothetical facility in Denver County.

Facility size: 100 MW

1 MW1,000 MW

Cooling type

Utilization: 70%

40%100%

799K gallons/dayHigh Impact

Your facility would use 29.7% of this county's industrial water baseline. Verify water rights and long-term drought projections before committing.

29.7% of county industrial baseline1.89 Mgal/day remaining headroom

Based on USGS 2020 water-use data and EPA-standard cooling intensity constants. Not a substitute for site-specific water rights analysis.

Editorial analysis

Understanding Denver County’s Water

Drinking Water Quality Overview

EPA SDWIS

Denver County earns an A grade for drinking water quality, scoring 71.8 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 2 health-based violations — a small cluster that warrants attention.

Watershed Conditions

EPA ATTAINS

Under the Clean Water Act §303(d), EPA ATTAINS tracks whether waterways meet quality standards for drinking, recreation, and aquatic life (reporting cycle: 2022). A substantial 39.1% of assessed waterways are impaired (95 of 243 water bodies) across Denver County's watersheds. The leading impairment causes are arsenic and escherichia coli (e. coli). Impairment does not mean tap water is unsafe — it measures ambient waterway conditions upstream of treatment, not finished drinking water.

River & Streamflow Status

USGS NWIS

USGS NWIS gauge data (as of 2026-05-14T12:55:00.000-06:00) puts CHERRY CREEK at 40.8 cfs — flowing above its historical average at 145% of mean. Streamflow is a leading indicator of drought stress, sediment load, and dilution capacity: low flows concentrate pollutants and warm water temperatures, stressing aquatic life and, in surface-water-dependent systems, the source water quality for treatment plants.

Monitoring Network

EPA WQP

EPA's Water Quality Portal (WQP) aggregates monitoring data from federal, state, and tribal agencies. Denver County has extensive coverage with 59 active monitoring sites with 28,462 recent measurements on record. Predominant monitoring categories include organics, pesticide and physical. More monitoring sites generally indicate greater scientific attention to local water conditions — and provide the baseline data that regulators use to set future impairment listings.

Editorial advisory

What the data suggests for Denver County

Water Verdict

Denver County, Colorado receives a good water quality assessment with a grade of A and a score of 71.8 out of 100. While the water supply is generally safe, occasional monitoring gaps or minor contaminant detections may occur. Separately, EPA ATTAINS assessments cover 243 water bodies in the county's watershed, with 39.1% listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act — a source-water measure that is tracked independently of tap-water compliance. At the most recent USGS reading, local streamflow was running above its historical mean at 144.8%.

Violation Context

EPA SDWIS records for Denver County, Colorado show 2 health-based violations, indicating multiple instances where federal contaminant limits or treatment requirements were not met. At 0.2 violations per 100,000 people served, this rate is relatively low compared to many U.S. counties. This compliance record sits alongside an unusually deep monitoring archive: 28,462 water-quality results have been logged across the county in the EPA Water Quality Portal over the past five years.

Consumer Guidance

Tap water in Denver County earns a Grade A overall with a small number of isolated health violations in the recent record. Denver County's drinking-water compliance score is 71.8 out of 100. The violation rate for Denver County is 0.2 per 100,000 people served. These violations were likely resolved quickly; Grade A reflects a strong multi-year compliance trend. Reviewing the most recent Consumer Confidence Report will show exactly which systems were affected and what corrective action was taken. With 59 active water-quality monitoring sites in Denver County, data coverage is strong. Arsenic is the leading impairment cause in Denver County's watershed. A pipeline streamflow snapshot from the CHERRY CREEK gauge is also available on this page.

Regional Context

Denver County has better water quality than the average county in Colorado. Its water score is 33.1 points higher than the state average, indicating stronger water system performance relative to neighboring counties.

Advisory text summarizes county-level public records and is not a replacement for your utility's current Consumer Confidence Report or direct local notices.

Contaminants & Resources

Key issues flagged in Denver County's water environment

Watershed Impairment Causes (EPA ATTAINS)

1
Arsenic
Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment
2
E. coli (bacteria)
Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment
3
Cadmium
Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Official EPA Resources for Denver County

EPA How's My Waterway

Interactive watershed health data for Denver County

EPA ECHO: Drinking Water Systems

Search water utilities and violation records for Denver County

Consumer Confidence Reports (CO)

Annual water quality reports from utilities in Colorado

Clean Water Act §303(d)

Watershed Health

Impaired Water Bodies

39.1%

95 of 243 assessed

Moderate concern

Top Impairment Causes

1
ARSENIC
2
ESCHERICHIA COLI (E. COLI)
3
CADMIUM

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Impairment is determined under the Clean Water Act §303(d): a water body is impaired when it fails to meet state-defined quality standards for designated uses (drinking, recreation, aquatic life). Assessment coverage varies by state; counties without assessed water bodies are not shown.

Past 5 years

Water Quality Monitoring

Monitoring Sites

Active in the past 5 years

Measurements Recorded

28K

28,462 total readings

Most Measured

Organics, Pesticide
Physical
Nutrient

Categories measured most frequently

Data from the EPA Water Quality Portal (WQP), aggregating monitoring records from federal, state, and tribal sources. Each measurement represents a single sample analyzed for a specific characteristic (e.g., E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrogen).

Live USGS Streamgage

River & Stream Conditions

Current Discharge

40.8cfs

May 14, 6:55 PM UTC

vs Long-Term Average

145%

Well above typical

Primary Streamgage

CHERRY CREEK AT DENVER, CO.

USGS site: 06713500
Drainage area: 410 sq mi
Long-term mean: 28.2 cfs

One representative streamgage (the one with the largest drainage area in the county). Many counties have multiple gauges; this view summarizes the primary one. The long-term mean is the full-record annual average; the percent-of-typical value compares the latest reading against that average.

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Household size

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Filter type

Annual Total

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Monthly

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Water Bill

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Filter Cost

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Safety Grade for Denver County:C — Moderate

Some violations or watershed impairment detected.

Estimates use the national average residential water rate ($0.0068/gal, EPA/AWWA 2023) and EPA WaterSense per-person consumption baseline (75 gal/person/day). Actual bills vary by utility, usage tier, and local infrastructure fees. For informational purposes only.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the water quality in Denver County, Colorado?

Denver County, Colorado has a drinking-water quality grade of A with a score of 71.8/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 2 health-based drinking water violations over the past 5 years. Watershed health, monitoring records, and streamflow snapshots are reported separately on this page.

Are there any water violations in Denver County?

Denver County has 2 health-based drinking water violations recorded by the EPA over the past 5 years. Health-based violations indicate instances where contaminant levels exceeded EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs). Violations may have been resolved — check with your local water utility for current status.

How healthy are the watersheds in Denver County?

EPA ATTAINS assessments under Clean Water Act §303(d) indicate 39.1% of Denver County's 243 assessed water bodies are classified as impaired (95 impaired). The top reported causes are ARSENIC, ESCHERICHIA COLI (E. COLI), CADMIUM. Impairment means the water body fails to meet state quality standards for at least one designated use — drinking water source, recreation, aquatic life, or fish consumption. Note: watershed impairment doesn't always translate to tap-water issues; treatment plants can remove most regulated contaminants.

How much water-quality monitoring happens in Denver County?

EPA's Water Quality Portal records 28,462 measurements from 59 monitoring sites in Denver County over the past five years. The most frequently measured characteristic groups are Organics, Pesticide, Physical, Nutrient. Each measurement is a single sample analyzed for one characteristic (E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, etc.). High monitoring density means more scientific evidence behind any reported signal — it does not by itself indicate water quality.

What's happening with rivers in Denver County right now?

Denver County's primary USGS streamgage on the CHERRY CREEK has a pipeline snapshot of 40.8 cubic feet per second — 145% of the long-term mean of 28.18 cfs. This is well above typical — often a signal of recent precipitation or storm runoff. For the latest gauge feed, visit waterdata.usgs.gov.

How does Denver County water compare to the Colorado average?

Denver County's SDWIS water quality score of 71.8/100 is higher than the Colorado state average of 38.7. The average water quality grade across Colorado is F, based on data from 64 counties with available SDWIS data.

Is tap water safe to drink in Denver County?

Based on EPA SDWIS data, Denver County has a water quality grade of A (71.8/100). This indicates good to excellent water quality with strong SDWIS compliance. The grade speaks to the public water system, not the watershed — for watershed-level concerns, see the Watershed Health zone. For the most up-to-date information, contact your local water utility or review your Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).

Does Denver County have clean drinking water?

Denver County has 2 health-based drinking water violations according to EPA records. With a water quality score of 71.8/100 and grade A, the county's drinking water has had some compliance issues but continues to be monitored. Note: drinking-water compliance speaks to the public water system, not necessarily to the watershed itself — check the Watershed Health zone for ATTAINS §303(d) data.

How does Denver County rank for water quality in Colorado?

Denver County ranks #10 out of 64 counties in Colorado by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 71.8/100, it falls in the top third of counties statewide. The ranking reflects EPA SDWIS compliance only — not watershed impairment, monitoring density, or streamflow, which are tracked separately on this page.

Counties with Similar Water Quality

Arapahoe County

Colorado

69.8

Water score

Mesa County

Colorado

68.0

Water score

Broomfield County

Colorado

64.6

Water score

Data Sources

Drinking-water compliance data from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) via the ECHO enforcement database. Scores reflect compliance history and health-based violation counts.

Watershed health and impaired-waterway data from the EPA ATTAINS Clean Water Act §303(d) assessments, state-reported and EPA-finalized.

Water-quality monitoring counts from the EPA Water Quality Portal (WQP), federated USGS, EPA, and state agency sampling records over a rolling 5-year window.

Live streamflow from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), continuous discharge measurements from the largest-drainage gauge in each county, compared against the full-record long-term annual mean.

Disclaimer: This data is informational only. It is not health, legal, or professional advice. For concerns about your specific water supply, contact your local water utility.

By Evan Brooks, Data EditorUpdated May 14, 2026Reviewed by Evan Brooks, Data Editor

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