Teaming up to watch and protect the South Platte River

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Teaming up to watch and protect the South Platte River

Website offers educational stories, enhanced monitoring of the river that flows through Denver.

Editor’s note: This is a collaborative story from water quality experts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Abigail Wright, a watershed scientist at Denver Water.

South Platte sample Grant Glueck Denver Water — Grant Glueck, a water quality technician at Denver Water, collects a sample of water from the South Platte River. Denver Water and its partner agencies continually monitor the health of the river, from its headwaters in Park County through the metro area. Photo credit: Denver Water.

Checking out the health of the South Platte River and its tributaries is now easier and much improved with a newly updated online resource.

Over the past year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Metro Water Recovery, Denver Water, and other members of the South Platte River Urban Waters Partnership, improved functionality of the Water Quality Assessment Tool, also known as WQAT.

The tool provides water quality information on the South Platte for scientists, educators, anglers, boaters, water utilities and the public. The goal of the resource is to help everyone better understand and improve the health of the critical waterway that flows through the Denver metropolitan area.

Denver Shoemaker Plaza South Platte River — The South Platte River flows through Shoemaker Plaza in downtown Denver. The new water quality resource helps monitor the health of the river through the city. Photo credit: South Platte River Urban Waters Partnership.

The online tool was updated in September 2023 and provides access to data on several factors that influence the quality of the water, such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, nutrients and metals. There also are educational tools called “storylines” that explain how these factors impact various uses of the river such as aquatic life and recreation.

"There are so many people in our community who are passionate about protecting the South Platte River and this updated tool provides a great way to monitor the river’s health,” said Alison Witheridge, a watershed scientist at Denver Water.

“The storylines also are a great resource that make it easy to understand complex topics.”

South Platte Urban Waters Water Quality Assessment Tool — The South Platte Urban Waters Partnership collects data on the river and provides it to the public through the Water Quality Assessment Tool. Image credit: South Platte River Urban Waters Partnership.

A key enhancement to the assessment tool is that data is now continuously updated because it is linked to federal and state water quality databases in the Upper South Platte watershed. In addition, users can query and download data for their own use for free.

The technological updates were funded by EPA and the U.S. Forest Service. Denver Water funds annual maintenance and webhosting.

"With these updates, the WQAT helps Denver-area communities, including those that are overburdened and historically underserved, conveniently and easily track the quality of their water," said EPA engineer Stacey Eriksen.

Learn more about the partnership in a new EPA video (below), or contact Samuel Wallace for questions about the partnership at wallace@peakfacilitation.com.