Colorado · counties
Water in Pueblo County
What the state and federal record says about water across Pueblo 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.
- 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 Pueblo County
- 644household well permits issued since 2015
- 89of them for use inside the house only
- 555for full household use
- 333feet, the typical depth
- 10gallons a minute, the typical yield
CDSS well permits Decided by: DWR, at permit application. Appeals go to the water judge within 35 days.
- 2,500 Live water rights across 2,390 square miles
- 8,399 Wells drilled across 2,390 square miles
- 30,196 ac Irrigated ground across 2,390 square miles
- 184 ft Well depth middle value across 1,064 of 2,390 square miles
- 364 days Days called out middle value across 498 of 2,390 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Pueblo 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
2,390 surveyed sections, drawn 2 by 2 miles 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.
Wells here have had to be re-drilled deeper
54 wells carry a later record more than 20% deeper than their first. Colorado publishes no water-level trend, so a well going back down is the closest thing to one.
CDSS well permit action history 8 of 62 counties
54 here 8th of 62 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
5 of this county's 18 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 8 of 45 counties
5 here 8th of 45 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A listing's priority date will overstate seniority here
40% 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 11 of 60 counties
40% here 11th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Structures here have measured years where nothing came through
60% of measured structures recorded at least one year diverting nothing. A decree does not stop a headgate running dry.
DWR diversion records 12 of 60 counties
60% here 12th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
There are many impoundments here with no decreed storage right
2,670 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.
CDSS structures 2 of 58 counties
2,670 here 2nd of 58 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
67% 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 16 of 64 counties
67% here 16th of 64 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
The senior water here was claimed before Colorado was a state
The oldest appropriation on record in this county is 1859, which predates statehood in 1876. Seniority is the whole of Colorado water law and it is absolute: a right from the 1850s is in front of everything filed since, every year, in every dry year.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 4 of 60 counties
1859 here 4th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Towns hold a large share of the water here
15% of rights allow municipal use. 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 18 of 58 counties
15% here 18th of 58 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
49% 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 28 of 56 counties
49% here 28th of 56 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water here is called out for a large part of the year
The median right is out of priority 103 days a year on DWR's own analysis. The worst year on record here was 366 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 32 of 49 counties
103 days here 32nd of 49 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Pueblo 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.
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