Colorado · counties
Water in Dolores County
What the state and federal record says about water across Dolores 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.
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Household well, any lot size
A household well can serve up to three homes, one acre of lawn and garden, and livestock, whatever the size of the lot.
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On a rule boundary
A basin or over-appropriation line crosses these sections, so the answer turns on where on the lot the well would sit.
- 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 Dolores County
- 77household well permits issued since 2015
- 19of them for use inside the house only
- 58for full household use
- 200feet, the typical depth
- 5gallons a minute, the typical yield
CDSS well permits Decided by: DWR, at permit application. Appeals go to the water judge within 35 days.
- 196 Live water rights across 1,080 square miles
- 417 Wells drilled across 1,080 square miles
- 6,565 ac Irrigated ground across 1,080 square miles
- 150 ft Well depth middle value across 170 of 1,080 square miles
- 17 days Days called out middle value across 65 of 1,080 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Dolores 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
1,080 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 lot of the water decreed here was never built
20% of rights are conditional only, against 5% in the median county. A court said somebody may build it and nobody has.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 2 of 58 counties
20% here 2nd of 58 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 6 gallons a minute, against 12 gpm in the median county. Workable for a house, a problem for livestock or irrigation.
CDSS well permits 2 of 64 counties
6 gpm here 2nd of 64 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 2 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 2 of 64 counties
2 here 2nd of 64 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
7% of rights are instream flow rights, against 2% in the median county, 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 5 of 46 counties
7% here 5th of 46 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water here has already been taken away for non-use
8% of rights carry an abandonment record, against 4% in the median county. This is not the decennial list, which is the state PROPOSING to cancel a right. These are the ones where that already happened, and they are the clearest evidence of how the division engineer treats non-use in this county.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 6 of 59 counties
8% here 6th of 59 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Many decrees here name a structure that no longer exists
15% of rights attach to a structure DWR marks abandoned, historical or non-existent. A decree citing a ditch that is gone is a title problem, not a water supply.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 7 of 60 counties
15% here 7th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Soil here holds water at the surface rather than letting it through
93% of sections have hydrologic group D soil, the slowest-infiltrating class. Good ground for a stock pond, which will hold without lining. Bad ground for a septic absorption field and for well recharge, because one property drives all three.
USDA SSURGO soil survey 15 of 64 counties
93% here 15th of 64 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
66% 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 17 of 64 counties
66% here 17th 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
61% 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 21 of 56 counties
61% here 21st of 56 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of this county is wet ground
40% 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 29 of 63 counties
40% here 29th of 63 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
1 of this county's 2 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 29 of 45 counties
1 here 29th of 45 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Dolores 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 Dolores County