Colorado · counties
Water in Conejos County
What the state and federal record says about water across Conejos 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
-
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.
- This is the San Luis Valley (Water Division 3). The state declares the whole Rio Grande basin over-appropriated, so the lot decides what a household well may serve. Any well bigger than a household well must pump under a subdistrict plan, an augmentation plan or a substitute water supply plan.
- 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 Conejos County
- 633household well permits issued since 2015
- 196of them for use inside the house only
- 437for full household use
- 110feet, the typical depth
- 10gallons a minute, the typical yield
CDSS well permits Decided by: DWR, at permit application. Appeals go to the water judge within 35 days.
- 3,093 Live water rights across 1,394 square miles
- 4,151 Wells drilled across 1,394 square miles
- 104,350 ac Irrigated ground across 1,394 square miles
- 120 ft Well depth middle value across 443 of 1,394 square miles
- 360 days Days called out middle value across 474 of 1,394 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Conejos 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
1,394 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.
A listing's priority date will overstate seniority here
54% of water rights were decreed more than a decade after the water was first claimed, against 30% in the median county. Listings quote the claim date. A call is administered on the decree date, and the median gap here is 26 years.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 60 counties
54% here 1st of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
This is farming country and the water is committed to it
Structures here serve 129,336 mapped irrigated acres, against 32,919 ac in the median county. That acreage is what the decreed water is already doing, so a new use competes with it rather than adding to it.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 3 of 45 counties
129,336 ac here 3rd of 45 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of this county is wet ground
82% of sections carry poorly drained soil, against 36% in the median county, 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 4 of 63 counties
82% here 4th of 63 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Nobody measures what most structures here divert
71% of rights sit on structures where DWR keeps no diversion record. There is no way to check the paper against what actually came through.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 9 of 60 counties
71% here 9th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
3 of this county's 8 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 13 of 45 counties
3 here 13th of 45 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
The senior water here was claimed before Colorado was a state
The oldest appropriation on record in this county is 1850, which predates statehood in 1876. Seniority is the whole of Colorado water law and it is absolute: a right from the 1850s is in front of everything filed since, every year, in every dry year.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 60 counties
1850 here 1st of 60 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 244 days a year on DWR's own analysis. The worst year on record here was 366 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 14 of 49 counties
244 days here 14th of 49 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Most of the wells drilled here never had a pump put in
64% of constructed wells have no pump installation on record. Somebody paid to drill a hole and walked away from it. A permit says you may drill; this is what happened when people did.
CDSS well permit action history 22 of 64 counties
64% here 22nd of 64 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated
25% of sections carry soil the USDA classes as 'prime farmland if irrigated'. That qualifier is the whole sentence: the soil is excellent and the classification depends on water reaching it. It is what an appraiser and a conservation easement both test against.
USDA SSURGO soil survey 41 of 56 counties
25% here 41st of 56 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Conejos 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.
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