From its mountainous source to the treated purity at your tap, Denver Water takes water quality very seriously. As a part of our extensive testing program, each year Denver Water collects more than 55,000 samples and conduct nearly 200,000 water quality tests to confirm that drinking water is safe and meets or goes above federal and state requirements for the Denver metro area.  

Water quality teams travel to eight counties and collect samples from 77 watershed locations. Water samples from the collection area are tested by our lab to understand in and around our water supply. Samples that veer from typical readings could indicate unexpected pollution, echoes of old mining activity or, increasingly, the impacts of forest fires. Understanding these impacts helps prepare operators for potential impacts to reservoirs and so we can adjust our treatment process, if needed.

DENVER WATER LAB HOURS

Monday-Friday: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
Saturday: Closed
Sunday: Closed

Above are the hours for the Denver Water water quality lab. CSU Spur is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and the 2nd Saturday of every month from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Blue Spur logo

Read the 2022 Denver Water Quality report

Lab workers in hard hats and vests.

A new environment

On the Spur campus, Denver Water is in the heart of a new research environment, in a spot where we can work closely with academics and innovators studying a wide spectrum of current and emerging water quality issues and solutions as we continue to deliver safe, reliable, great-tasting water to the Denver metro area today and in the future. Being part of the Spur campus also puts Denver Water in a space where we can better develop solutions to emerging water challenges for our customers and the state, while expanding on our robust youth education program to develop future water leaders. 

This new location shifts the lab from an obscure setting, tucked away behind security gates near the Marston Treatment Plant in southwest Denver, to the CSU Spur complex, situated at a well-trafficked location at an innovative new campus in an historic area of Denver. 

The new lab provides improved space for Denver Water’s continual water quality analysis to monitor water from the mountains to its treatment plants, through its distribution system and what comes out of the tap. The new location provides capacity for nearly three times as many tests, as well as more room for research and collaboration.