Colorado · counties
Water in Costilla County
What the state and federal record says about water across Costilla 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 Costilla County
- 856household well permits issued since 2015
- 418of them for use inside the house only
- 438for full household use
- 210feet, 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.
- 1,540 Live water rights across 1,311 square miles
- 2,665 Wells drilled across 1,311 square miles
- 35,218 ac Irrigated ground across 1,311 square miles
- 200 ft Well depth middle value across 539 of 1,311 square miles
- 353 days Days called out middle value across 203 of 1,311 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Costilla 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
1,311 surveyed sections, drawn one square mile 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.
Water here changes hands and moves
22% of rights carry a transfer, exchange or alternate point event, against 11% in the median county. An active market means a price exists, and it also means water can leave the ground it started on.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 6 of 60 counties
22% here 6th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Some rights here cannot be analysed for curtailment at all
DWR declines a call analysis for 53.7% of rights. It declines wells, springs and reservoirs, so the curtailment picture here is thinner than the number of rights suggests.
DWR administrative call analysis 6 of 44 counties
53.7% here 6th of 44 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A listing's priority date will overstate seniority here
39% 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 21 years.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 13 of 60 counties
39% here 13th of 60 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 1850, 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 1 of 60 counties
1850 here 1st of 60 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 8 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.
Dams here are rated unsatisfactory
3 of this county's 13 dams carry an unsatisfactory condition rating. A storage right behind a failing dam is water you cannot count on.
Colorado Dam Safety 16 of 43 counties
3 here 16th of 43 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
67% 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 56 counties
67% here 19th 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 177 days a year on DWR's own analysis. The worst year on record here was 366 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 24 of 49 counties
177 days here 24th of 49 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of this county is wet ground
20% 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 46 of 63 counties
20% here 46th of 63 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Costilla 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.
Search an address in Costilla County