Colorado · counties
Water in Chaffee County
What the state and federal record says about water across Chaffee County. Each figure names the agency it came from.
Can I drill a well here?
It depends on your lot: its size, and when it was created
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Where the lot decides (over-appropriated ground)
What a household well may serve depends on the lot's size and on when and how it was created:
Lot of 35 acres or more
A household well can serve up to three homes, one acre of lawn and garden, and livestock. A 35-acre tract platted as part of a subdivision counts as part of the subdivision instead.
Under 35 acres, created before June 1, 1972 or by a county exemption
A household well for use inside one house only. No lawn, garden or livestock.
Under 35 acres, in a subdivision approved June 1, 1972 or later
No well by right. DWR weighs every well in the subdivision together, so in practice the subdivision's own water supply plan decides what a well may do.
- One exempt well per legal parcel. Inside a town or a water district's service area DWR generally issues no household well permit.
What has actually been permitted in Chaffee County
- 1,548household well permits issued since 2015
- 312of them for use inside the house only
- 1,236for full household use
- 160feet, the typical depth
- 12gallons a minute, the typical yield
CDSS well permits Decided by: DWR, at permit application. Appeals go to the water judge within 35 days.
- 1,364 Live water rights across 1,036 square miles
- 7,734 Wells drilled across 1,036 square miles
- 0 ac Irrigated ground across 1,036 square miles
- 125 ft Well depth middle value across 342 of 1,036 square miles
- 364 days Days called out middle value across 301 of 1,036 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Chaffee County by the square mile
Each figure below is one number for the whole county. The map places the same records on the ground, square mile by square mile.
Live water rights. Decreed rights still on the books. This is where the paper water is, which is not the same map as where anybody drilled.
- none on record (bare ground)
- up to 1
- 2
- 3
- 4 to 6
- 7 to 16
- over 16
1,036 surveyed sections, drawn one square mile to a square. The shading is scaled against every county in Colorado, so a color means the same thing on any of these pages. The outline is the county boundary from the Census Bureau: ground inside the line and outside the shading is ground nobody has drilled, filed on or addressed. Aerial imagery is the USGS National Map.
Building here usually means a water court case before a lot can sell
84% of the well-served subdivisions the State Engineer has reviewed in this county needed an augmentation plan, out of 164 proposals, against 34% in the median county. Colorado will not let a county approve a subdivision until he has said whether the water supply is adequate, and an augmentation plan is how a proposal that cannot answer that gets to yes. It is a water court case, and it is the cost nobody puts in the budget.
Subdivision referral opinions of the Colorado State Engineer 1 of 17 counties
84% here 1st of 17 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water here is called out for a large part of the year
The median right is out of priority 360 days a year on DWR's own analysis, against 170 days in the median county. The worst year on record here was 366 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 3 of 49 counties
360 days here 3rd of 49 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
9 of this county's 18 community water systems carry a health-based violation that has not been returned to compliance. Health-based means contamination or a treatment failure, not late paperwork.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 4 of 45 counties
9 here 4th of 45 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of the water here is decreed to stay in the stream
5% of rights are instream flow rights, held by the Water Conservation Board to keep water in the channel rather than take it out. They are senior water that will never be diverted, and on a short stream they set the floor everyone junior to them lives under.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 6 of 46 counties
5% here 6th of 46 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Wells here have had to be re-drilled deeper
40 wells carry a later record more than 20% deeper than their first. Colorado publishes no water-level trend, so a well going back down is the closest thing to one.
CDSS well permit action history 11 of 62 counties
40 here 11th of 62 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of this county is wet ground
67% of sections carry poorly drained soil, meaning a water table close to the surface for part of the year. A foundation and septic constraint, and often the most productive ground on a property.
USDA SSURGO soil survey 15 of 63 counties
67% here 15th of 63 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
There are many impoundments here with no decreed storage right
1,112 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.
CDSS structures 5 of 58 counties
1,112 here 5th of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Chaffee County
The figures above describe the whole county. The Land, Development and Rights reports answer for one parcel: what water conveys, what a well permit would allow, and what the county requires to split it. Each answer gives the evidence within a mile and who decides.
Search an address in Chaffee County