Westminster, Colorado
Water Quality in Westminster, Colorado
Watershed: Upper Big Dry Creek
What is the water quality like in Westminster, CO?
Let’s dive deeper into what’s in Westminster water.
What’s in Westminster water?
Here are the top 3 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:
- Haloacetic acids – Potential effect: Cancer
- Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
- Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer
These are three of the 13 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).
These 3 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 Westminster’s water come from?
Westminster’s water comes from the Upper Big Dry Creek watershed.
6 of the 9 EPA assessed water sources in the Upper Big Dry Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:
- Big Dry Creek
- Lakes and reservoirs near Big Dry Creek
- Lakes and reservoirs near Clear Creek
- North Walnut Creek, South Walnut Creek
- Upper Big Dry Creek
- Woman and Walnut Creeks
Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Great Western Reservoir and Standley Lake are in Good condition.
Whether a water source is in Impaired or Good condition refers to the quality of these uses:
- Drinking Water
- Aquatic Life
- Fish and Shellfish Consumption
- Recreation
Learn more from How’s My Waterway
See below for what you can do to improve Westminster’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 10 of the 13 contaminants in your drinking water.
- Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Westminster water.
- Brita can filter 3 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 13 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
- Chromium (total)
- Fluoride
- Haloacetic acids – chlorination byproduct*
- Hexavalent chromium – health effects
- Molybdenum
- Nitrate
- Nitrite
- Strontium
- Total trihalomethanes – byproduct of chlorination*
*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.cityofwestminster.us/Government to find contact information for your local officials.