Hydrohistorian
Town of Empire
Serves Empire.
Boundary traced from WSP. About 1 km².
Where the water comes from
| Facility | Kind | Water |
|---|---|---|
| MADD CREEK | Intake | Surface water |
| WELL | Well | Groundwater |
These are EPA's facility records, not DWR structures. Which decreed rights sit behind an intake is the next phase; nothing here is inferred.
DWR structures that name this system
Source Probable join · fetched 2026-09-09 · matched on DWR's recorded contact or an EPA intake name; verify on the dossier
4 structures on DWR's record name this system as their contact (4). A match says who DWR lists, not who owns the water: a ditch company can own the headgate while the system owns shares, and a consultant can be the contact. The dossier holds the decree.
| Structure | Type | Source | District | Matched on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMPIRE AUG 0702521 | AUGMENTATION/REPLACEMENT PLAN | UNDEFINED | Clear Creek | contact: EMPIRE, TOWN OF |
| EMPIRE AUG IMPACT REACH 0702919 | REACH | WEST FORK CLEAR CREEK | Clear Creek | contact: EMPIRE, TOWN OF (CADE, JENNIFER) |
| EMPIRE TOWN WATER RIGHT 0700567 | DITCH | MAD CREEK | Clear Creek | contact: EMPIRE, TOWN OF (CADE, JENNIFER) |
| EMPIRE WELL NO 1-25863-F 0705056 | WELL | GROUNDWATER: CLEAR CREEK | Clear Creek | contact: EMPIRE, TOWN OF (CADE, JENNIFER) |
Compliance record
Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-09-09 · verify at EPA ECHO ↗
Nothing open today, but 14 health-based violations appear on the federal record historically. The history is below.
EPA's own summary: violations in 3 of the last 12 quarters. In violation for, in EPA's words: 1005=Arsenic; 1010=Barium; 1015=Cadmium; 1020=Chromium; 1035=Mercury; 1036=Nickel; 1045=Selenium; 1074=Antimony, Total; 1075=Beryllium, Total; 1085=Thallium, Total.
What happened
All 14 violation records on file, grouped into the 3 distinct things EPA's codes describe. Dates are the compliance period the violation is filed against.
Rule: Surface Water Treatment Rule -- filtration and disinfection.
Rule: Lead and Copper Rule -- corrosion of household plumbing.
Rule: Lead and Copper Rule -- corrosion of household plumbing.
Every violation record, as filed (12 of 14)
| Compliance period | What | About | Kind | Status | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-08-01 – 2020-08-31 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2020-07-01 – 2020-07-31 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2020-06-01 – 2020-06-30 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2020-05-01 – 2020-05-31 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2020-04-01 – 2020-04-30 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2020-03-01 – 2020-03-31 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2020-02-01 – 2020-02-29 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2020-01-01 – 2020-01-31 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2019-12-01 – 2019-12-31 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2019-11-01 – 2019-11-30 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2019-10-01 – 2019-10-31 | Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) | SWTR | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-09-30) | |
| 2019-09-01 | OCCT/SOWT Study/Recommendation | Lead and Copper Rule | health-based | returned to compliance (2020-06-30) |
The remaining 2 are on the ECHO report.
What the regulator did about it
81 enforcement actions on this system's federal record. In Colorado the state is the primacy agency, so most actions are the state's; EPA acts directly on tribal systems and when it steps in.
| Date | Action | By |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-10-09 | St Compliance achieved received non-lead, SLMN no longer required. |
state |
| 2025-08-19 | St Violation/Reminder Notice | state |
| 2025-08-19 | St Public Notif requested | state |
| 2024-11-07 | St Compliance achieved System collected next required routine sampling in Q4 2024 lmf 1/30/2025 |
state |
| 2024-10-14 | St Violation/Reminder Notice | state |
| 2024-10-14 | St Public Notif requested | state |
| 2023-01-12 | St Compliance achieved revised 31/31 EPRD MOR rcvd 1/12 |
state |
| 2023-01-11 | St Violation/Reminder Notice | state |
| 2023-01-11 | St Public Notif requested | state |
| 2022-03-20 | St Boil Water Order | state |
| 2020-10-09 | St Violation/Reminder Notice | state |
| 2020-10-09 | St Violation/Reminder Notice | state |
| 2020-10-09 | St Compliance achieved | state |
| 2020-10-05 | St Compliance achieved | state |
| 2020-09-30 | St Compliance achieved Treatment upgrades are complete. September treatment is compliant. |
state |
| 2020-09-04 | St Violation/Reminder Notice | state |
| 2020-09-04 | St Public Notif requested | state |
| 2020-09-01 | St Public Notif received | state |
| 2020-08-13 | St Violation/Reminder Notice | state |
| 2020-08-13 | St Public Notif requested | state |
20 most recent of 81; the rest are on the ECHO report.
Lead and copper
The latest 90th-percentile lead result is 0.002 mg/L (sampling period ending 2026-06-30) against an action level of 0.015 mg/L, below it. 21 results on file, 1 lead result over the action level all time.
The action level is not a health limit: it is the level at which the rule requires a system to act (corrosion control, public education, and in some cases replacing lead service lines). Lead mostly enters water from household plumbing, so a system-wide percentile does not tell you what comes out of one tap.
Violation, enforcement and lead/copper records are EPA SDWIS federal reporting, fetched monthly; the summary is EPA ECHO. Code names come from EPA's own REF_CODE_VALUE table. SDWIS carries violations, not routine sample results — nitrate, disinfection by-product and PFAS values are not in it, and a clean record here means nothing was reported as a violation, not that nothing was ever detected. For what was measured, ask the system for its Consumer Confidence Report.
PFAS and lithium: EPA's UCMR 5 monitoring, 2023–2025
Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-09-09 · verify at EPA UCMR occurrence data ↗
EPA did not sample this system under UCMR 5 (the rule covered every system serving more than 3,300 people and a drawn sample of smaller ones).
Common questions
Who provides drinking water in Empire, Colorado?
The Town of Empire is the public water system serving 500 people in Clear Creek County, from surface water. Its EPA public water system id is CO0110010.
Where does the Town of Empire get its water?
The Town of Empire reports surface water as its primary source. EPA lists its source facilities as MADD CREEK, WELL.
Does the Town of Empire have any drinking water violations?
EPA's compliance record shows no open health-based violations for the Town of Empire at the last monthly fetch. Older and non-health-based entries, if any, are listed on this page.
Places this system serves
Census places its EPA service-area boundary substantially covers. Each page lists every system serving that place.
Every provider in Clear Creek County.
The record
EPA SDWIS federal reporting as of 2026-09-08; the compliance record above is EPA's own, fetched monthly, and the ECHO report carries the rest. Report a problem →