Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Dolores 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.
- 196 Live water rights across 1,080 square miles
- 417 Wells drilled across 1,080 square miles
- 6,565 ac Irrigated ground across 1,080 square miles
- 150 ft Well depth middle value across 170 of 1,080 square miles
- 2.4 days Days called out middle value across 19 of 1,080 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Dolores 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
1,080 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
A lot of the water decreed here was never built
20% of rights are conditional only, against 5% across the state. A court said somebody may build it and nobody has.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 2 of 58 counties
20% here 2nd of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Wells here make very little water
The typical well makes 6 gallons a minute, against 12 gpm across the state. Workable for a house, a problem for livestock or irrigation.
CDSS well permits 2 of 60 counties
6 gpm here 2nd of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Nobody pipes water in this county
There is no active community water system anywhere on the federal register here, so every property is on a well, a cistern, or a shared private supply.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 2 of 60 counties
2 here 2nd of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
A lot of the water here is decreed to stay in the stream
7% of rights are instream flow rights, against 2% across the state, held by the Water Conservation Board to keep water in the channel rather than take it out. They are senior water that will never be diverted, and on a short stream they set the floor everyone junior to them lives under.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 5 of 46 counties
7% here 5th of 46 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Water here has already been taken away for non-use
8% 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 6 of 59 counties
8% here 6th of 59 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Many decrees here name a structure that no longer exists
15% of rights attach to a structure DWR marks abandoned, historical or non-existent. A decree citing a ditch that is gone is a title problem, not a water supply.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 7 of 60 counties
15% here 7th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Soil here holds water at the surface rather than letting it through
93% of sections have hydrologic group D soil, the slowest-infiltrating class. Good ground for a stock pond, which will hold without lining. Bad ground for a septic absorption field and for well recharge, because one property drives all three.
USDA SSURGO soil survey 14 of 60 counties
93% here 14th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Half the wells drilled here never had a pump put in
66% 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 16 of 60 counties
66% here 16th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated
61% 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 17 of 52 counties
61% here 17th 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
40% 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 29 of 59 counties
40% here 29th of 59 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 2 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.
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 Dolores County