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Clear Creek

Division 1 · Water District 7 · As of 2026-10-10 00:34 MDT · 5 days ago · also known as Clear Creek Canyon

Who may take water from the Clear Creek, who is calling for it today, and how it is running, compiled from Colorado Division of Water Resources records. Click anything on the map for its record.

Live · reviewed by a person
How this page was built

Rebuilt 2026-10-14 12:14 UTC from 8,503 input files: two runs agree (output 2532f0e86de110d0…); not compared with the analysis served here (why?). The receipt

Clear Creek on the ground — the ditches, wells, reservoirs and gages of Water District 7 · clicktap anything for its record

Browse this district’s ditches, gages, reservoirs, wells and springs as a list.

37% of normal flow, week of 2026-09-28
2 calls the record places on it, 7 unsettled

The Clear Creek is well below normal for late September -- 37% of normal flow. 2 calls stand against it right now; the most senior right calling dates to 1861. DWR's statements do not settle whether 7 more calls reach it.

Water quality

The water itself, in this district

Four registers, each on its own schedule: what USGS sensors read right now, where samples have been taken, which stretches the state lists as impaired, and how the tap water of the systems here stands with EPA. None is a DWR record; each links its own page.

Right now

Source Provisional telemetry · fetched 2026-10-15 · verify at USGS current conditions ↗

No USGS continuous water-quality sensor reports from inside this district. Statewide sensors →

Where water has been sampled

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-10-08 · verify at Water Quality Portal ↗

The portal lists 1,709 sampling stations in this district's watershed (Clear 10190004), of which 69 reported a sample in the last 5 years on the state and tribal side (USGS activity is in the station count, not in that figure). Most active: Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment-WQCD (44), Colorado River Watch (22), USGS Colorado Water Science Center (2). Most-sampled groups: Inorganics, Major, Metals, Physical, Nutrient, Information. Every station as a file ↗

Results themselves are not fetched here; USGS samples added after March 2024 may not be in the portal's legacy profiles yet.

Drinking water

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-10-07 · verify at EPA SDWIS ↗

27 community systems touch this district. 2 carry an open health-based violation on EPA's record. EPA sampled 10 of them for PFAS in 2023–25; none had PFOA or PFOS at or above the 2024 limit.

SystemServesEPA recordPFAS (UCMR 5)Lead, latest 90th pct
NORTH LINCOLN WSD 1,000 1 open health-based not sampled —
ST MARYS GLACIER WSD 451 1 open health-based not sampled 0.003 mg/L
DENVER WATER BOARD 1,287,000 11 of 12 quarters with a violation none detected 0.0036 mg/L
WESTMINSTER CITY OF 202,078 2 of 12 quarters with a violation none detected 0.0013 mg/L
ARVADA CITY OF 171,610 2 of 12 quarters with a violation none detected 0.0031 mg/L
CONSOLIDATED MUTUAL MAPLE GROVE 81,400 clean, last 12 quarters 3 detected, under the limits 0.0037 mg/L
GOLDEN CITY OF 38,288 clean, last 12 quarters none detected 0.0 mg/L
CRESTVIEW WSD 23,756 clean, last 12 quarters not sampled —
WHEAT RIDGE WATER DISTRICT 20,000 clean, last 12 quarters not sampled —
BLACK HAWK CITY OF 15,167 clean, last 12 quarters none detected 0.002 mg/L

and 17 more; the full directory filters by district.

EPA's record carries violations and lead/copper percentiles; nitrate and disinfection by-product results are not in it. UCMR 5 samples are monitoring, not compliance, and the 2024 PFOA/PFOS limits equal its reporting limit, so any detection of those two is at or above them.

Every assessed stretch below is drawn on the district map above: turn on the Impaired waters layer (red is on the list, grey is assessed and attaining; click a stretch for its causes).

Water quality

31 of 49 assessed segments in this basin are on Colorado's impaired-waters list (2024 assessment), most often metals.

63% of assessed segments impaired
49 named segments assessed
Metals most common cause (28 segments)
2024 assessment cycle

Where these stretches are

Impaired, cleanup plan written (TMDL) Impaired, no plan yet Assessed, meeting standards

Tap a stretch for its causes. A named creek appears more than once because CDPHE assesses it in separate units, so the map shows where a finding starts and stops rather than colouring a whole creek at once.

On the impaired-waters list

Each entry is one CDPHE assessment unit — a named, mapped stretch of stream, not the whole creek at once, which is why a single named creek can appear more than once with different findings above and below a tributary or discharge.

  • Chase Gulch, mainstem and all tributaries Metals
  • Chicago Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Clear Creek, all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Clear Creek, all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Clear Creek, mainstem Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Clear Creek, mainstem Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Clear Creek, mainstem MetalsTemperature Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Clear Creek, mainstem Temperature
  • Clear Creek, mainstem Temperature
  • Clear Creek, mainstem MetalsSediment
  • Clear Creek, mainstem AmmoniaMetalsPathogensSedimentTemperature
  • Clear Creek, mainstem MetalsPathogensSedimentTemperature
  • Clear Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Clear Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Clear Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Fall River, mainstem Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Gilson Gulch, mainstem and tributaries MetalsSolids chlorides sulfates Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Gregory Gulch, Russell Gulch, and Silver Gulch, mainstem and all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Leavenworth Creek, mainstem Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • North Clear Creek, all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • North Clear Creek, mainstem MetalsTemperature Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • North Empire Creek MetalsSolids chlorides sulfates Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Ralston Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Metals
  • Ralston Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Pathogens
  • Silver Creek Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • South Clear Creek, mainstem Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • South Clear Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Trail Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Turkey Gulch Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
  • Virginia Canyon MetalsSolids chlorides sulfates
  • West Fork of Clear Creek Metals Cleanup plan (TMDL)
16 segments meeting standards, 2 not yet assessed
  • Beaver Brook Fully Supporting
  • Clear Creek, all tributaries Fully Supporting
  • Clear Creek, all tributaries Fully Supporting
  • Clear Creek, mainstem and all tributaries Fully Supporting
  • Fall River, all tributaries Fully Supporting
  • Hoop Creek Fully Supporting
  • Kearney Gulch, Grizzly Gulch Fully Supporting
  • Lena Gulch, mainstem and all tributaries Fully Supporting
  • Leyden Creek, Van Bibber Creek and Little Dry Creek, mainstems Fully Supporting
  • Lion Creek Fully Supporting
  • Mad Creek Fully Supporting
  • North Clear Creek, Four Mile Gulch, and Eureka Gulch, mainstem and all tributaries Fully Supporting
  • Soda Creek Fully Supporting
  • West Clear Creek, all tributaries Fully Supporting
  • West Clear Creek, mainstem Fully Supporting
  • West Clear Creek, mainstem Fully Supporting
  • Clear Creek, all tributaries Not Assessed
  • Woods Creek, mainstem Not Assessed

Source: EPA ATTAINS (Colorado Regulation 93 / Clean Water Act §303(d) list); state.co.us hosts the same assessment, ATTAINS is EPA's public mirror of it.. A segment being “Not Supporting” means it fails Colorado’s water-quality standard for the stated use (aquatic life, recreation, drinking-water supply...) for the stated cause — a legal, periodic finding, independent of whether any sensor happens to be deployed there right now.

Snowpack — 1 SNOTEL site report here. Runoff outlook — Clear Ck at Golden: even odds of at least 52 kAF over 06-01 to 09-30 — 52% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Full snow & runoff picture — charts, forecast history and how the forecasts have verified →

Sites, exceedance bands and sources
SNOTEL siteElev (ft)SWE (in)Median (in)% of medianTypical peak
Loveland Basin11410 0.20.8 — May 2 (24.4 in)

Clear Ck at Golden — 06-01 to 09-30 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):

90%70%50%30%10%Normal
4248525663 100

Snow-water equivalent and medians (1991–2020) from NRCS SNOTEL; seasonal volume forecasts from the NRCS National Water and Climate Center. Sites and forecast points are assigned to the district whose boundary contains them — snowpack that feeds this district can also sit in a neighboring headwater district. Toggle the Snow chip on the map above to see the sites.

Topology cross-check: 2 parent disagreements, 10 sizable streams not on this network (vs DWR's route framework — under review)

This flow network was built mechanically; DWR's Source Water Route Framework disagrees with it in the places below. Each row is a question a human reviewer has not yet answered — not an error verdict. Checked 11 streams, 9 agree. Know this water? Tell us →

StreamThis site routes it toDWR routes it to
South Fork Ralston Creek the mainstem Ralston Creek
Coal Creek the mainstem Boulder Creek

Sizable streams DWR maps here that this network does not carry:

Beaver Brook (11 mi) · Lena Gulch (10 mi) · Tucker Gulch (9 mi) · Little Dry Creek (9 mi) · Mill Creek (9 mi) · Guy Gulch (8 mi) · Elk Creek (6 mi) · Soda Creek (5 mi)

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