COLORADO WATER TRUST
To restore and protect streamflow in Colorado by using voluntary, market-based transactions and partnerships to sustain healthy aquatic ecosystems, working farms and ranches, and resilient communities.
About COLORADO WATER TRUST
Colorado Water Trust is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that designs and implements voluntary transactions—acquisitions, leases, and coordinated releases of water rights—to put water back in rivers and streams for ecological, agricultural, and community benefit.
Founded in 2001, the organization works across basins in Colorado with water-rights holders, reservoir operators, public agencies, and local partners to secure instream flows and flexible water solutions; in recent years the Trust has advanced permanent and temporary water projects, reservoir-based environmental releases, and basin-specific funding partnerships.
In the last 2–3 years the Water Trust completed a headline donation of storage water (Jasper Lake, donated August 29, 2024) and has continued environmental release programs (including Stagecoach/Elkhead releases and work supported by the Yampa River Fund) that restored measurable volumes of water to Colorado rivers.
Notable achievements
Jasper Lake storage donation (2024)
Accepted a donated reservoir and its senior storage water (donation announced August 29, 2024), creating a permanent environmental water asset that benefits Boulder Creek and establishes a replicable model for donated storage water to support streamflows.
Large-scale flow restoration over decades
Across its history the organization has facilitated transactions that cumulatively restored very large volumes of water to Colorado rivers and stream reaches, using creative applications of Colorado water law to protect instream uses.
Yampa and Stagecoach environmental release programs
Developed and sustained multi-year reservoir release programs (including Stagecoach and Elkhead) and partnered with basin funds to provide reliable funding and operational capacity for seasonal and emergency environmental releases.
At a glance
- Total assets
- $8.3M
- Annual revenue
- $7.6M
- Tax status
- 501(c)(3)Public charity
- EIN
- 84-1606567
- Location
- Denver, CO
- Website
- coloradowatertrust.org
- On Mahalo since
- November 2025
Financial figures from the IRS Business Master File, the IRS’s registry of tax-exempt organizations.
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