Colorado Springs, Colorado

Water Quality in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Watershed: City of Colorado Springs – Fountain Creek

What is the water quality like in Colorado Springs, CO?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Colorado Springs water.

What’s in Colorado Springs water?

Here are the top 4 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Radium – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Uranium – Potential effect: Cancer

These are four of the 20 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

These 4 contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

See the What Can You Do? section below for all of the contaminants you can filter out and how to do it.

Where does Colorado Springs’ water come from?

Colorado Springs’ water comes from the City of Colorado Springs – Fountain Creek watershed.

5 of the 8 EPA assessed water sources in the City of Colorado Springs – Fountain Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Cheyenne Creek
• Fountain Creek – mainstem and (some) tributaries

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Bear Creek and lakes and tributaries to Fountain Creek are in Good condition.

Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:

1. Drinking Water
2. Aquatic Life
3. Fish and Shellfish Consumption
4. Recreation

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Colorado Springs’ water.

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality can be surprising.

But there’s no reason to lose hope. There are things you can do in your household as well as things you can do at a community level.

In Your Household:

• Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out 17 of the 20 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Colorado Springs water.
  • Brita can filter 7 contaminants (and Lead depending on the filter).
  • Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
• To filter out 18 of the 20 contaminants, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your house.
  • These are more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but can be more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Barium – In low doses, barium ions act as a muscle stimulant, and higher doses affect the nervous system, causing cardiac irregularities, tremors, weakness, anxiety, shortness of breath, and paralysis.
    • Chromium (total)
    • Ethylbenzene
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Molybdenum
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Picloram – herbicide with moderate toxicity to the eyes and mild toxicity on the skin.
    • Radium
    • Selenium – toxicity
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Uranium
    • Xylenes – petrochemical. Hearing disorders have been linked to xylene exposure.

*Chlorination is an effective method of disinfecting/treating drinking water. You can then use a water filter to reduce the effects of chlorination byproducts to get the safest, cleanest water possible.

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: https://coloradosprings.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Colorado Cities

Colorado Water Quality Page