Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Mineral 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.
- 560 Live water rights across 894 square miles
- 1,116 Wells drilled across 894 square miles
- 1,170 ac Irrigated ground across 894 square miles
- 84 ft Well depth middle value across 111 of 894 square miles
- 365 days Days called out middle value across 102 of 894 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Mineral 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
894 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
It takes a long time to get from permit to water here
The median well takes 85 days from permit issue to completion, against 23 days across the state. Worth knowing before you plan a build around drilling next spring.
CDSS well permit action history 1 of 60 counties
85 days here 1st of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
A lot of the water here is decreed to stay in the stream
16% of rights are instream flow rights, against 2% across the state, 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 1 of 46 counties
16% here 1st of 46 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
A lot of this county is wet ground
68% 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 11 of 59 counties
68% here 11th of 59 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
3 of this county's 3 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 13 of 44 counties
3 here 13th of 44 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
A lot of the water decreed here was never built
8% of rights are conditional only. A court said somebody may build it and nobody has.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 15 of 58 counties
8% here 15th of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Dams here are rated unsatisfactory
3 of this county's 35 dams carry an unsatisfactory condition rating. A storage right behind a failing dam is water you cannot count on.
Colorado Dam Safety 16 of 42 counties
3 here 16th of 42 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 Mineral County