Water Quality

The City of Arvada provides all customers with an annual Water Quality Report.

Our goal is to consistently provide our residents with safe and dependable drinking water. The Utilities Department is staffed 24 hours a day 365 days a year make sure that water is properly treated, adequately tested and efficiently distributed to homes and businesses. 

Water Supply

Arvada's drinking water comes from two surface water sources:

  1. Denver Water's North Collection System supplies approximately 75% of the drinking water supply. This water is fresh mountain snowmelt collected from the Fraser and Williams Fork River valleys then transported to South Boulder Creek through the Moffat Tunnel. Water is diverted downstream of Gross Reservoir through the South Boulder Diversion Canal to Ralston Reservoir, then either piped to the Ralston Water Treatment Plant or delivered to Arvada Reservoir via Ralston Creek.
  2. Clear Creek provides the remainder of the City's water supply which is diverted through one of three canals to the Arvada Reservoir in the spring and summer months when water demands peak. Water from the Arvada Reservoir can be treated at either Ralston Water Treatment Plant or the Arvada Water Treatment Plant.

Water Treatment

The City has two water treatment plants that treat the water supplies to Federal and State drinking water standards. 

The City treats and delivers over six billion gallons of water using the Arvada and Ralston Water Treatment Plants. The Ralston Water Treatment Plant is the primary water treatment plant. The Arvada Water Treatment Plant is used during our higher-demand season, usually from May-October.

Compliance with State and Federal Regulations

The City of Arvada complies with the strict federal regulations of the Safe Drinking Water Act as well as state regulations provided in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Primary Drinking Water Regulations. These regulatory limits have been established by the state and federal health departments to ensure public health and safety.

Water Distribution

From the water treatment facilities, the water flows through pressurized pipes to storage tanks and residential and commercial buildings throughout the city.

The delivery system is highly interconnected to minimize outages in the event of a water pipe break. 10 million gallon water tanks have been constructed at critical locations to help with peak flow demands and to supply water for fire suppression needs. The maintenance of this system ranges from making sure the fire hydrants operate every time, pressures in the system are consistent, and the many isolation valves work.