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Roaring Fork River Basin

Division 5 · Water District 38 · As of 2026-09-30 05:25 MDT · 2 weeks ago · also known as Roaring Fork

Who may take water from the Roaring Fork River Basin, 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 · machine-built

Roaring Fork River Basin on the ground — the ditches, wells, reservoirs and gages of Water District 38 · clicktap anything for its record

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

11% of normal flow, week of 2026-09-21
5 calls the record places on it, 25 unsettled

The Roaring Fork River is critically low for late September -- 11% of normal flow. 5 calls stand against it right now; the most senior right calling dates to 1881. DWR's statements do not settle whether 25 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 ↗

4 USGS sensors report temperature, conductance, dissolved oxygen or turbidity from inside this district; provisional readings, never merged into the verified record.

SiteTemp °CCond µS/cmDO mg/LTurb FNUAs of
ROARING FORK RIVER AB DIFFICULT C NR ASPEN, CO. 5.9 84 2026-10-15 05:30
ROARING FORK RIVER AT GLENWOOD SPRINGS, CO. 10.5 704 8.6 78 2026-10-15 05:45
ROARING FORK RIVER BLW MAROON CREEK NR ASPEN, CO ↗ 7.4 419 2026-10-15 06:00
ROARING FORK RIVER NEAR EMMA, CO 9.3 411 2026-10-15 05:30

Where water has been sampled

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

The portal lists 748 sampling stations in this district's watershed (Roaring Fork 14010004), of which 132 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 River Watch (83), Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment-WQCD (40), USGS Colorado Water Science Center (5). Most-sampled groups: Inorganics, Major, Metals, Physical, Nutrient, Inorganics, Minor, Metals. 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 ↗

51 community systems touch this district. None carries an open health-based violation on EPA's record. EPA sampled 5 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
ASPEN CITY OF 31,100 1 of 12 quarters with a violation none detected 0.001 mg/L
GLENWOOD SPRINGS CITY OF 9,428 clean, last 12 quarters none detected 0.001 mg/L
CARBONDALE TOWN OF 6,700 2 of 12 quarters with a violation none detected 0.0015 mg/L
SNOWMASS VILLAGE WSD 6,353 12 of 12 quarters with a violation none detected 0.0 mg/L
MID VALLEY MD 4,588 clean, last 12 quarters none detected 0.0011 mg/L
BASALT TOWN OF 2,357 clean, last 12 quarters not sampled 0.0 mg/L
ROARING FORK WSD 1,912 12 of 12 quarters with a violation not sampled 0.0007 mg/L
BRUSH CREEK WD 516 clean, last 12 quarters not sampled 0.0011 mg/L
SOPRIS VILLAGE HOA 425 11 of 12 quarters with a violation not sampled 0.0 mg/L
WESTBANK RANCH HOA 400 clean, last 12 quarters not sampled 0.0032 mg/L

and 41 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.

Impaired waters

Source Register of another agency · verify at EPA ATTAINS ↗

The state's 303(d) impaired-waters list has not been joined to this basin's own watershed boundary yet, so nothing is shown rather than a guess; the basins with a join carry the full list here. Why the join is geometry, not a name match.

Snowpack — 8 SNOTEL sites report here. Runoff outlook — Ruedi Reservoir Inflow : even odds of at least 15 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 18% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Runoff outlook — Roaring Fk at Glenwood Springs: even odds of at least 88 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 20% 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
Castle Peak11510 0.2— — —
Chapman Tunnel10090 0.00.2 — April 19 (15.4 in)
Independence Pass10570 0.20.0 — April 18 (17.4 in)
Ivanhoe10540 0.20.0 — April 26 (17.2 in)
Kiln9610 0.00.0 — April 7 (13.2 in)
Nast Lake8710 0.00.0 — March 28 (8.8 in)
North Lost Trail9190 0.10.0 — April 4 (17.4 in)
Schofield Pass10640 0.20.0 — April 19 (35.1 in)

Ruedi Reservoir Inflow — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):

90%70%50%30%10%Normal
812152129 83

Roaring Fk at Glenwood Springs — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):

90%70%50%30%10%Normal
406388120150 445

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, 8 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 31 streams, 29 agree. Know this water? Tell us →

StreamThis site routes it toDWR routes it to
Hunter Creek the mainstem Snowmass Creek
Dry Woody Creek the mainstem Red Canyon

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

Lincoln Creek (12 mi) · Red Canyon (9 mi) · Difficult Creek (9 mi) · Lost Man Creek (6 mi) · Red Canyon (6 mi) · Luchsinger Creek (6 mi) · McFarlane Creek (4 mi) · Crystal Spring Creek (4 mi)

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