Fort Collins, Colorado

Water Quality in Fort Collins, Colorado

Watershed: City of Fort Collins – Cache La Poudre River

What is the water quality like in Fort Collins, CO?

Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Fort Collins water.

What’s in Fort Collins water?

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

1. Chlorite – Potential effect: Change in blood chemistry
2. Dichloroacetic acid – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 14 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

6 of these 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 Fort Collins’s water come from?

Fort Collins’s water comes from the City of Fort Collins – Cache La Poudre River watershed.

6 of the 9 EPA assessed water sources in the City of Fort Collins – Cache La Poudre River watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Cache La Poudre River – three segments of the mainstem
• Spring Creek

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. All tributaries of the Cache La Poudre River are in Good condition. Watson Lake is also 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 Fort Collins’s 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 9 of the 14 contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Fort Collins water.
  • Brita can filter 5 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 11 of the 14 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 – health risks in water
    • Chlorite
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
    • Hexavalent chromium – health effects
    • Nitrate
    • Nitrite
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
    • Trichloroacetic acid

*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://www.fcgov.com/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other Colorado Cities

Colorado Water Quality Page