Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Saguache 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.
- 5,752 Live water rights across 3,230 square miles
- 5,347 Wells drilled across 3,230 square miles
- 88,153 ac Irrigated ground across 3,230 square miles
- 140 ft Well depth middle value across 849 of 3,230 square miles
- 147 days Days called out middle value across 675 of 3,230 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Saguache 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
A listing's priority date will overstate seniority here
46% of water rights were decreed more than a decade after the water was first claimed, against 30% across the state. Listings quote the claim date. A call is administered on the decree date, and the median gap here is 22 years.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 6 of 60 counties
46% here 6th 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 13 of 59 counties
68% here 13th of 59 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 5 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.
Stands out
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.
Context
Nobody measures what most structures here divert
56% 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 25 of 60 counties
56% here 25th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
There are many impoundments here with no decreed storage right
77 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.
CDSS structures 13 of 58 counties
77 here 13th of 58 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 5 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
Half the wells drilled here never had a pump put in
56% 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 33 of 60 counties
56% here 33rd of 60 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 Saguache County