Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Kiowa 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.
- 321 Live water rights across 1,818 square miles
- 854 Wells drilled across 1,818 square miles
- 0 ac Irrigated ground across 1,818 square miles
- 65 ft Well depth middle value across 461 of 1,818 square miles
- 364 days Days called out middle value across 175 of 1,818 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Kiowa 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
1,818 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 has already been taken away for non-use
11% of rights carry an abandonment record, against 4% across the state. 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 2 of 59 counties
11% 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 get plugged and abandoned more than most
17.6% of well permits end in a plugging, 108 wells in all. A well sealed shut is the clearest verdict a driller ever files.
CDSS well permit action history 8 of 60 counties
17.6% here 8th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Much of this county sits in a designated groundwater basin
21% of well permits are inside NORTHERN HIGH PLAINS, where new permits are restricted or unavailable. Before anything else about water here, find out whether you can get one.
CDSS well permits 9 of 15 counties
21% here 9th of 15 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Nobody measures what most structures here divert
68% 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 12 of 60 counties
68% 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
Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated
67% 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 14 of 52 counties
67% here 14th of 52 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
36% 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 19 of 60 counties
36% here 19th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
A lot of this county is wet ground
24% 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 41 of 59 counties
24% here 41st 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 Kiowa County