Littleton Water Hardness & Quality Report (2026)

Littleton, Colorado, the Arapahoe County seat south of Denver — a major Denver south suburban community, one of Denver's oldest suburbs, home of the Littleton Museum, the South Platte Park riparian preserve, and a major Platte River south corridor community, known as the 'Home of Colorado' (several of Colorado's oldest pioneer families settled here) — draws its municipal water supply from the South Platte River (Chatfield Reservoir) and Bear Creek Reservoir via the City of Littleton Water Division. Water hardness in Littleton measures 83 mg/L — classified as moderately soft.

Littleton's moderate softness reflects the South Platte River watershed's calcareous-moderate Front Range geology. The South Platte River above Chatfield Reservoir and Bear Creek drain the Colorado Front Range — a mix of Precambrian granitic crystalline terrain (calcareous-poor Pikes Peak Granite and Paleoproterozoic gneiss of the Front Range) and Cretaceous Pierre Shale (the calcareous-moderate sea floor deposit of the Western Interior Seaway, calcareous clay mineral shale). The Chatfield Reservoir and Bear Creek blended supply, treating the moderately soft Front Range–South Platte supply, produces the moderate 83 mg/L at Littleton.

With hardness at 83 mg/L, Littleton residents enjoy moderately soft water. City of Littleton Water Division consistently delivers water meeting all Colorado CDPHE and EPA Safe Drinking Water Act requirements.