Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Costilla County
What the state and federal record says about water here, before you look at any particular piece of ground. Every finding names the agency it came from.
- 5 Live water rights across 1,310 square miles
- 1 Wells drilled across 1,310 square miles
- 0 ac Irrigated ground across 1,310 square miles
- 180 ft Well depth middle value across 1 of 1,310 square miles
- 283 days Days called out middle value across 1 of 1,310 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Costilla County by the square mile
Every finding on this page is one number for the whole county. These are the same records placed on the ground they came from.
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
1,310 surveyed sections, drawn one square mile to a square. The shading is scaled against every county in Colorado, so a colour 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.
Stands out
The state will not analyse most rights here
DWR declines a call analysis for 55.0% of rights, against 0% across the state. It declines wells, springs and reservoirs, so the curtailment picture here is thinner than the number of rights suggests.
DWR administrative call analysis 1 of 23 counties
55.0% here 1st of 23 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Structures here have measured years where nothing came through
34% of measured structures recorded at least one year diverting nothing, against 12% across the state. A decree does not stop a headgate running dry.
DWR diversion records 3 of 25 counties
34% here 3rd of 25 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Water here is called out for a large part of the year
The median right is out of priority 179 days a year on DWR's own analysis. The worst year on record here was 366 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 9 of 20 counties
179 days here 9th of 20 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
A listing's priority date will overstate seniority here
40% of water rights were decreed more than a decade after the water was first claimed. Listings quote the claim date. A call is administered on the decree date, and the median gap here is 21 years.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 12 of 60 counties
40% here 12th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
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.
Stands out
Every town here drinks the same water a well would draw
All 8 of this county's community water systems run on groundwater rather than surface water. A municipal supply is the best-monitored well in the county, so its record is the closest thing to a free test of the aquifer under this ground.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 1 of 56 counties
100% here 1st of 56 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Dams here are rated unsatisfactory
3 of this county's 13 dams carry an unsatisfactory condition rating. A storage right behind a failing dam is water you cannot count on.
Colorado Dam Safety 16 of 42 counties
3 here 16th of 42 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated
40% 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 31 of 52 counties
40% here 31st of 52 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
This is the county. Your question is probably a property.
None of the above is about a particular parcel. Water is not parcel-shaped: the ditch serving the ground runs through other people's land and the senior right that curtails it sits somewhere else, which is why the state files by survey section rather than by property. Check an address and you get the square mile it sits in, with the wells, the rights and what was actually diverted.
Check a property in Costilla County