Denver Water's annual report year and a water sample's year can differ. The 2026 report puts its main regulated-water data under a heading for 2025. A cover identifies an edition; the dates attached to a result tell you when the evidence was collected. Keep both when you save or share a finding.
Keep the cover year separate from the sample period
In the 2026 Water Quality Report, the lead and copper table separates January-June 2025 from July-December 2025. Its UCMR5 PFAS table includes 2023/2024/2025. Those dates prevent an annual heading from turning every row into one year's measurements.
Decide which row answers your question before copying its value. Keep the plant or distribution-system heading with it, then the period and unit. If you only keep the report title, someone reading your note later cannot tell whether the figure describes a collection round, an annual summary or a longer monitoring period.
A comparison also needs the same kind of value on each side. For example, a monthly maximum and an annual average ask different questions even if both appear beneath the same cover. Read the column heading before treating an apparent change as a trend. If the periods or locations differ, describe that difference alongside any comparison.
Read the notice on its own dates
The same report records a missed synthetic-organic-compound monitoring requirement at Moffat for 1 January 2023 through 31 December 2025. Denver Water says it collected one required sample set instead of two and says the omission posed no safety risk or need for customer action. That is the utility's explanation of that dated omission, not a new test of a home. Read the monitoring notice in the report with its period intact.
A missed sample and a measured concentration are different records. Keep the reason for a notice in your notes rather than replacing it with a broad claim that everything passed or everything failed. A report can contain both a result table and an explanation of an incomplete monitoring obligation.
Earlier editions show the same dating pattern
The 2025 report PDF labels its regulated-data section as data collected throughout 2024. Its printed page 7 carries that heading; later tables retain their own periods. This provides a second example of an edition following the measurement year, without assigning a posting date from the cover.
Denver Water's announcement dated 1 March 2025 says the 2025 report was available. That is dated evidence of availability. It does not establish the first online posting date of the separate 2026 report.
For a later trip or a concern at a particular building, start a fresh inquiry with the current utility information. An older report remains useful for the period it documents, but it cannot establish what an unsampled tap contains today. Save a direct report link and the relevant page or section so the original context remains easy to check. Our Denver city guide gives broader travel context, and the Denver watershed explainer follows the separate question of where the supply comes from.
