Parker, Colorado

What is the Water Quality in Parker, Colorado?

[Updated: June 9, 2023]

Compared to other US cities, Parker water quality ranks in the high range for contamination excluding Lead.

Most of their 34 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at high levels: 34x health guidelines.
• Radium is at very high levels: 50x health guidelines.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Parker water.

What’s in Parker water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Bromodichloromethane – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 34 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

13 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Parker have Lead contamination?

Yes, Parker has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2018 showed concentrations up to 2.0 parts per billion (ppb).

The legal limit for lead is 15 parts per billion. Being well-below this level is a good thing.

• Concentrations between 3.8 ppb and 15 ppb put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels. Read more about the symptoms of Lead in water.

There is no safe level of lead for humans.

• The good news is that 99.99% of the lead can be filtered out.

See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.

Where does Parker’s water come from?

Parker’s water comes from the Newlin Gulch – Cherry Creek watershed.

2 out of 3 water sources in the Newlin Gulch – Cherry Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These are:

• Cherry Creek (main stem) – Impaired
• Lakes and reservoirs near Cherry Creek – Unknown.

Ideally, a water source would be Known and rated in Good condition. All tributaries of Cherry Creek have been assessed as in Good condition.

Learn more and see a map at How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Parker’s water.

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Parker can be surprising.

But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.

1. Test Your Water using Varify Home Test Kits or similar.
2. To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:

• Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Faucet-mount filters work better than pitchers.
  • PUR and Brita are low-cost and effective.

• To filter out even more contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are much more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • 1,4-Dioxane
    • 1-butanol
    • Arsenic
    • Bromoform
    • Chlorite
    • Chloroform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Cobalt
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5 and HAA9) – common byproducts of chlorine treatment linked to cancer.
    • Molybdenum
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Radium
    • Selenium
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – common byproducts of chlorine treatment linked to cancer.
    • Uranium
  • Our recommendation: APEC Reverse Osmosis Systems

In Your Community:

Contact your local government officials and put pressure on them to invest in cleaner waterways and upgraded city water filtration and treatment.

Go to: http://www.parkeronline.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Colorado Cities

Colorado Water Quality Page