Colorado · counties
Water in Saguache County
What the state and federal record says about water across Saguache 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
-
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.
- This is the San Luis Valley (Water Division 3). The state declares the whole Rio Grande basin over-appropriated, so the lot decides what a household well may serve. Any well bigger than a household well must pump under a subdistrict plan, an augmentation plan or a substitute water supply plan.
- 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 Saguache County
- 772household well permits issued since 2015
- 244of them for use inside the house only
- 528for full household use
- 175feet, 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.
- 5,796 Live water rights across 3,230 square miles
- 5,838 Wells drilled across 3,230 square miles
- 89,965 ac Irrigated ground across 3,230 square miles
- 140 ft Well depth middle value across 945 of 3,230 square miles
- 144 days Days called out middle value across 829 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
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
3,230 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.
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% in the median county. 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.
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 63 counties
68% here 13th of 63 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
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 59 counties
100% here 1st of 59 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.
Structures here have measured years where nothing came through
39% of measured structures recorded at least one year diverting nothing. A decree does not stop a headgate running dry.
DWR diversion records 18 of 60 counties
39% here 18th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
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 23 of 60 counties
56% here 23rd 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
77 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.
CDSS structures 14 of 58 counties
77 here 14th of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
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 45 counties
1 here 29th of 45 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
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 34 of 64 counties
56% here 34th of 64 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Saguache 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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