About Our Water

Water is a valuable resource that all of us are responsible for protecting. The City of Brighton water enterprise provides safe, quality drinking water to our citizens meeting the demands of our community, while acting to conserve our resources.

The city currently serves over 41,000 customers over a 31 square mile service area. The average daily water usage in the City of Brighton is 3 Millions of Gallons per Day (MGD), with peak demand reaching over 12 MGD. 

Groundwater is the primary water resource for the city and its potable water supply. Groundwater production occurs from two separate tributary aquifer systems - the South Platte and the Beebe Draw. The city also has a permanent lease agreement with the City of Westminster for the delivery of up to 2 MGD of treated water from the City of Thornton distribution system.

Brighton’s groundwater is produced from the 12 wells owned and operated by the city and is pumped to one of two water treatment plants for filtration and disinfection prior to distribution. Groundwater drawn from the South Platte is treated at our Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant, while water drawn from the Beebe Draw is treated at the Greensands Filter Plant. The treated water is sent from the treatment plants to four different water storage tanks that consist of 8.3, 5, 3, and 0.5 million gallons (three ground and one elevated) before entering the distribution system of approximately 212 miles of pipe by pumping or gravity.

Used water is collected through the sanitary sewer system of approximately 160 miles of sewer pipe, and treated before being returned to the alluvial groundwater system. Your wastewater is treated at either the City of Brighton’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District’s Northern Treatment Plant, or the Lochbuie Wastewater Treatment Plant depending on where you live in Brighton.

Since the groundwater produced by the city is pumped from the South Platte and Beebe Draw alluvium, it is considered tributary groundwater and must, therefore, be augmented to offset depletions that occur out of priority. The City meets its augmentation requirements through these wastewater return flows. The city also has the discharge of water from the two Ken Mitchell storage ponds on the western edge of Brighton.