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Town of Ridgway

The Town of Ridgway is the public water system serving 1,000 people in Ouray County, from surface water.
Community system · EPA id CO0146676 · filed with EPA as “RIDGWAY TOWN OF”

Serves Ridgway.

People served
1,000
Service connections
690
Primary source
Surface water
Owner
Local government
Counties served
Ouray
Water district

Boundary traced from WSP. About 4 km².

Where the water comes from

FacilityKindWater
RAW WATER RESERVOIRS 3ReservoirSurface water
HAPPY HOLLOWIntakeSurface water
LAKE OTONAWANDAIntakeSurface water
BEAVER CREEKIntakeSurface water

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

2 structures on DWR's record 2 match an EPA intake by name. 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.

StructureTypeSourceDistrictMatched on
BEAVER CREEK 6801084 MF DALLAS CREEK Upper Uncompahgre River intake name: BEAVER CREEK
HAPPY HOLLOW DITCH 6800591 4 COTTONWOOD CREEK Upper Uncompahgre River intake name: HAPPY HOLLOW

Compliance record

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-09-09 · verify at EPA ECHO ↗

1 violation open now, none health-based. These are monitoring, reporting or notice requirements — a sample not taken, or a result not filed on time. They are real obligations, but they are not a finding about the water itself.

EPA's own summary: violations in 12 of the last 12 quarters. In violation for, in EPA's words: 0200=Surface Water Treatment Rule; 0300=Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule; 2456=Total Haloacetic Acids (HAA5); 4010=Combined Radium (-226 and -228); 5000=Lead and Copper Rule. Currently: 5000=Lead and Copper Rule.

What happened

All 5 violation records on file, grouped into the 2 distinct things EPA's codes describe. Dates are the compliance period the violation is filed against.

Follow-up Or Routine LCR Tap M/R — Lead and Copper Rule monitoring and reporting 1 open
A required sample was not taken, or the result was not reported on time. 1 record, 2026-01-01.
Rule: Lead and Copper Rule -- corrosion of household plumbing.
Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) — SWTR health-based
A required treatment step was not carried out or not proved. 4 records, 2023-03-01 to 2023-06-01.
Rule: Surface Water Treatment Rule -- filtration and disinfection.
Every violation record, as filed (5 of 5)
Compliance periodWhatAboutKindStatusMeasured
2026-01-01 Follow-up Or Routine LCR Tap M/R Lead and Copper Rule monitoring and reporting open
2023-06-01 – 2023-06-30 Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) SWTR health-based returned to compliance (2023-06-02)
2023-05-01 – 2023-05-31 Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) SWTR health-based returned to compliance (2023-06-02)
2023-04-01 – 2023-04-30 Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) SWTR health-based returned to compliance (2023-06-02)
2023-03-01 – 2023-03-31 Treatment Technique (SWTR and GWR) SWTR health-based returned to compliance (2023-06-02)

What the regulator did about it

60 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.

DateActionBy
2026-02-11 St Violation/Reminder Notice state
2026-02-11 St Public Notif requested state
2026-01-19 St Compliance achieved state
2026-01-02 St Violation/Reminder Notice state
2026-01-02 St Public Notif requested state
2025-12-31 St Compliance achieved state
2025-10-08 St Compliance achieved state
2025-09-17 St Violation/Reminder Notice state
2025-09-17 St Public Notif requested state
2025-08-11 St Violation/Reminder Notice state
2025-08-11 St Public Notif requested state
2025-06-17 St Compliance achieved state
2024-10-18 St Violation/Reminder Notice state
2024-10-18 St Public Notif requested state
2024-01-03 St Compliance achieved
System collected in Nov 2023 lmf 1/11/2024
state
2023-10-17 St Violation/Reminder Notice state
2023-10-17 St Public Notif requested state
2023-09-18 St Compliance achieved state
2023-09-15 St Violation/Reminder Notice state
2023-09-15 St Public Notif requested state

20 most recent of 60; the rest are on the ECHO report.

Lead and copper

The latest 90th-percentile lead result is 0.0051 mg/L (sampling period ending 2025-12-31) against an action level of 0.015 mg/L, below it. 9 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 Ridgway, Colorado?

The Town of Ridgway is the public water system serving 1,000 people in Ouray County, from surface water. Its EPA public water system id is CO0146676.

Where does the Town of Ridgway get its water?

The Town of Ridgway reports surface water as its primary source. EPA lists its source facilities as RAW WATER RESERVOIRS 3, HAPPY HOLLOW, LAKE OTONAWANDA, BEAVER CREEK.

Does the Town of Ridgway have any drinking water violations?

EPA's compliance record shows no open health-based violations for the Town of Ridgway 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 Ouray 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 →