Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Rio Blanco 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.
- 3,686 Live water rights across 3,230 square miles
- 1,618 Wells drilled across 3,230 square miles
- 29,234 ac Irrigated ground across 3,230 square miles
- 140 ft Well depth middle value across 515 of 3,230 square miles
- 27 days Days called out middle value across 277 of 3,230 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Rio Blanco 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
3,230 surveyed sections, drawn 2 by 2 miles 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
Permits here expire before anyone drills
76 permits, 5% of all issued, ran out with no well ever completed, against 2% across the state. Permission is not a well, and permission expires.
CDSS well permit action history 3 of 60 counties
5% here 3rd of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Half the wells drilled here never had a pump put in
77% of constructed wells have no pump installation on record, against 57% across the state. 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 4 of 60 counties
77% here 4th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Much of what stores water here predates the rules
426 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 5 of 59 counties
426 here 5th of 59 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
38% 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 10 years.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 18 of 60 counties
38% here 18th 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
62% 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 18 of 60 counties
62% here 18th 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
12.5% of well permits end in a plugging, 210 wells in all. A well sealed shut is the clearest verdict a driller ever files.
CDSS well permit action history 19 of 60 counties
12.5% here 19th of 60 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
55% 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 19 of 52 counties
55% here 19th of 52 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 Rio Blanco County