Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Huerfano 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.
- 2,263 Live water rights across 1,629 square miles
- 2,630 Wells drilled across 1,629 square miles
- 0 ac Irrigated ground across 1,629 square miles
- 148 ft Well depth middle value across 723 of 1,629 square miles
- 316 days Days called out middle value across 685 of 1,629 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Huerfano 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
1,629 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.
Worth knowing
Much of what stores water here predates the rules
425 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 6 of 59 counties
425 here 6th of 59 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Dams here are rated unsatisfactory
6 of this county's 90 dams carry an unsatisfactory condition rating. A storage right behind a failing dam is water you cannot count on.
Colorado Dam Safety 6 of 42 counties
6 here 6th of 42 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated
73% 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 8 of 52 counties
73% here 8th of 52 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 13 of 60 counties
8 gpm here 13th of 60 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
39% 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 20 years.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 14 of 60 counties
39% here 14th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Nobody measures what most structures here divert
66% of rights sit on structures where DWR keeps no diversion record. There is no way to check the paper against what actually came through.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 14 of 60 counties
66% here 14th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
There are many impoundments here with no decreed storage right
2,002 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.
CDSS structures 3 of 58 counties
2,002 here 3rd of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Half the wells drilled here never had a pump put in
65% 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 19 of 60 counties
65% here 19th of 60 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 10 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.
Context
A lot of this county is wet ground
23% 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 42 of 59 counties
23% here 42nd 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 Huerfano County