Colorado · counties
Water in Custer County
What the state and federal record says about water across Custer 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.
- 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 Custer County
- 1,050household well permits issued since 2015
- 491of them for use inside the house only
- 559for full household use
- 300feet, the typical depth
- 8gallons a minute, the typical yield
CDSS well permits Decided by: DWR, at permit application. Appeals go to the water judge within 35 days.
- 1,389 Live water rights across 747 square miles
- 5,122 Wells drilled across 747 square miles
- 0 ac Irrigated ground across 747 square miles
- 200 ft Well depth middle value across 450 of 747 square miles
- 364 days Days called out middle value across 334 of 747 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Custer 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
747 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.
Water here usually needs an augmentation plan to be legal
1.6% of rights sit under an augmentation plan, against 0% in the median county. Replacement water has to come from somewhere and is almost always paid for, every year, and the obligation runs with the land.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 22 counties
1.6% here 1st of 22 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Much of what stores water here predates the rules
538 structures here were in place before 1972, when Colorado began requiring a permit to build one, against 105 in the median county. They are lawful because they are old, their records are thin, and what a buyer inherits is whatever the state happens to have written down.
CDSS structures 2 of 59 counties
538 here 2nd of 59 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Almost nowhere in this county is on a piped water system
The federal register lists 3 active community water systems for the whole county, against 10 in the median county. Unless a property sits inside one of them it is on a well, a cistern, or a shared private supply.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 7 of 64 counties
3 here 7th of 64 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Wells here make very little water
The typical well makes 8 gallons a minute. Workable for a house, a problem for livestock or irrigation.
CDSS well permits 12 of 64 counties
8 gpm here 12th of 64 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Every town here drinks the same water a well would draw
All 3 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 59 counties
100% here 1st of 59 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
397 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.
CDSS structures 11 of 58 counties
397 here 11th of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of this county is wet ground
45% 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 27 of 63 counties
45% here 27th of 63 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 49 days a year on DWR's own analysis. The worst year on record here was 366 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 41 of 49 counties
49 days here 41st of 49 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Custer 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 Custer County