Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Elbert 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.
- 1,559 Live water rights across 1,854 square miles
- 10,906 Wells drilled across 1,854 square miles
- 1,826 ac Irrigated ground across 1,854 square miles
- 222 ft Well depth middle value across 1,405 of 1,854 square miles
- 312 days Days called out middle value across 194 of 1,854 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Elbert 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
1,854 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
Most of the water rights on paper here are dead
Only 33% of this county's 4,691 rights are still live, against 94% across the state. Most of what a records search turns up here is history rather than water.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 60 counties
33% here 1st of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Many decrees here name a structure that no longer exists
67% of rights attach to a structure DWR marks abandoned, historical or non-existent, against 5% across the state. A decree citing a ditch that is gone is a title problem, not a water supply.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 60 counties
67% here 1st of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Wells here have to go a long way down
The typical well is 340 feet deep, against 105 ft across the state, drawing denver basin bedrock. Depth is the cost before the water is.
CDSS well permits 2 of 60 counties
340 ft here 2nd of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
The water table here sits far below the surface
The median static water level is 160 feet down, against 46 ft across the state. That is pumping cost every day the well runs.
CDSS well permits 2 of 60 counties
160 ft here 2nd of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Much of this county sits in a designated groundwater basin
57% of well permits are inside KIOWA-BIJOU, where new permits are restricted or unavailable. Before anything else about water here, find out whether you can get one.
CDSS well permits 4 of 15 counties
57% here 4th of 15 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Towns hold a large share of the water here
41% of rights allow municipal use, against 10% across the state. Municipal rights are senior more often than not and rarely come back on the market, so they shape what is left for everyone else.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 6 of 58 counties
41% here 6th of 58 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 15 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
Water here is called out for a large part of the year
The median right is out of priority 75 days a year on DWR's own analysis. The worst year on record here was 363 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 14 of 20 counties
75 days here 14th of 20 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
51% 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 23 of 52 counties
51% here 23rd of 52 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
1 of this county's 15 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 44 counties
1 here 29th of 44 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 Elbert County