Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Custer 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.
- 1,389 Live water rights across 747 square miles
- 5,116 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
- 365 days Days called out middle value across 279 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
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
747 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
Water here usually needs an augmentation plan to be legal
1.6% of rights sit under an augmentation plan, against 0% across the state. 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.
Stands out
Water here is called out for a large part of the year
The median right is out of priority 364 days a year on DWR's own analysis, against 160 days across the state. The worst year on record here was 366 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 2 of 20 counties
364 days here 2nd of 20 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
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 across the state. 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.
Worth knowing
Nobody pipes water in this county
There is no active community water system anywhere on the federal register here, so every property is on a well, a cistern, or a shared private supply.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 7 of 60 counties
3 here 7th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
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 60 counties
8 gpm here 12th 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 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 56 counties
100% here 1st of 56 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
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.
Context
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 59 counties
45% here 27th of 59 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 Custer County