The Eagle River Coalition monitoring efforts provide data and context that guides everything else that we do. Much like you can’t fix what you don’t know is broken, we can’t create impactful, effective solutions to problems until we know they exist. Our water quality monitoring helps uncover threats and concerns so that we can develop a plan to resolve them.
The Water Quality Monitoring & Assessment Program (WQMAP) is an important, long-term collaborative effort to understand, protect and improve water quality, water quantity and biological health in our watershed. The goal of the program is to provide ongoing water quality monitoring, support science-based decision-making and foster collaborative action to preserve or enhance the integrity of the watershed.
Since the program’s creation in 1998, Eagle River Coalition has coordinated and overseen the program, which receives data from a number of entities in the valley that independently collect water quality data. The data is then assessed as one body of information. With all of the data compiled, threats can be identified as they emerge. Gaps in collection and duplications in efforts can easily be identified as well.
All of the data is publicly available and is also provided in a narrative format that explains what the data suggests about water quality in the Eagle River Watershed.
Water Quality Report Card Watershed Issues Story Map
Water Quality Report Card Technical Assessment Table
Water Quality Data Collectors and Funding Partners
CBS / Newfields D
Climax Molybdenum $
Colorado Department of Transportation D
Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment D
Colorado Parks and Wildlife D
Colorado River Water Conservation District $
Eagle County $
Eagle River Water & Sanitation District D $
Eagle River Watershed Council (River Watch) D $
Frost Creek Ranch D
Homestake Partners $
Town of Avon $
Town of Eagle D $
Town of Gypsum D $
Town of Minturn $
Town of Vail (River Watch) D $
Timberline Aquatics D
United States Forest Service D
United States Geological Survey D $
Upper Eagle Regional Water Authority $
Vail Resorts Management Company $
Are you someone who frequently enjoys the river, or perhaps you’re interested in staying informed about its current conditions? In either case, the Eagle River Coalition offers two ways for you to stay updated on the latest river conditions.
The Eagle River Coalition participates in River Watch, a statewide volunteer water quality monitoring program operated in collaboration with River Science and Colorado Parks & Wildlife.
Each month, we get out on the river and into the lab, testing for dissolved oxygen content, hardness, alkalinity, pH and the concentrations of various metals. All of this data helps us to keep tabs on the health of the river and track how it changes over time.
The Eagle Mine is located in Eagle County between the towns of Minturn and Red Cliff. The site consists of an inactive mining and milling facility, associated waste rock and former roaster pile areas, a consolidated tailings pile, the abandoned Town of Gilman, Belden mill area, Rex Flats, Rock Creek Canyon and the Maloit Park wetlands. The Eagle River, Cross Creek and several other Eagle River tributaries run through the site.
For years, the abandoned Eagle Mine dominated conversation surrounding water in Eagle County, with chronic spills of mine water to the Eagle River leaving it running orange and staining the rocks, which can still be seen around Minturn today.
The biggest concerns regarding spills are for their effects on the health of area fish populations. The river, from Red Cliff to the confluence with Gore Creek, supports a brown trout population which is somewhat impaired by concentrations of these heavy metals. Sculpin, a native fish, does not inhabit the Eagle River from Belden downstream to the confluence with Gore Creek. Very few rainbow trout are found in this reach either.
Much progress has been made to clean up the mine, as well as the Eagle River flowing through and below the area, since its closure in 1984 and its listing by the EPA as a Superfund site in 1986. The legacy of pollution from the mine, however, is an issue our community will continue to have to monitor and address forever. Without constant attention, the mine will fill with groundwater. This water, laden with heavy metals, will spill into the adjacent Eagle River, causing a cascade of effects on riparian ecosystems. It is imperative that the mine water be treated before returning to the river. For more information about the mine, please visit Colorado Department of Public Health & the Environment’s Eagle Mine webpage.
The clean-up work is conducted by the “principal responsible party” or PRP, which is CBS. CBS and its contractors work under the direction of the EPA and Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment. The Eagle River Coalition and other local partners monitor, advocate and work with federal agencies and the PRP to improve conditions as new technologies become available.
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