Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Crowley 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.
- 299 Live water rights across 799 square miles
- 766 Wells drilled across 799 square miles
- 35,804 ac Irrigated ground across 799 square miles
- 45 ft Well depth middle value across 276 of 799 square miles
- 365 days Days called out middle value across 106 of 799 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Crowley 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
799 surveyed sections, drawn one square mile 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
The division engineer has rights here on the abandonment list
1.5% of rights appear on Colorado's decennial abandonment list, against 0% across the state. That list is the state proposing to take a right away for ten years of non-use.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 15 counties
1.5% here 1st of 15 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Water here has already been taken away for non-use
12% of rights carry an abandonment record, against 4% across the state. This is not the decennial list, which is the state PROPOSING to cancel a right. These are the ones where that already happened, and they are the clearest evidence of how the division engineer treats non-use in this county.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 59 counties
12% here 1st of 59 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 3 of 60 counties
77% here 3rd of 60 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
43% 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 7 of 60 counties
43% here 7th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Wells here have had to be re-drilled deeper
39 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 12 of 59 counties
39 here 12th 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 7 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.
Worth knowing
Wells here get plugged and abandoned more than most
12.7% of well permits end in a plugging, 69 wells in all. A well sealed shut is the clearest verdict a driller ever files.
CDSS well permit action history 17 of 60 counties
12.7% here 17th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Towns hold a large share of the water here
14% 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 21 of 58 counties
14% here 21st of 58 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
52% 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 22 of 52 counties
52% here 22nd of 52 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
A lot of this county is wet ground
25% 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 40 of 59 counties
25% here 40th of 59 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 Crowley County