Colorado ยท county water record

Water in Fremont 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.

  • 1,452 Live water rights across 1,611 square miles
  • 7,195 Wells drilled across 1,611 square miles
  • 0 ac Irrigated ground across 1,611 square miles
  • 240 ft Well depth middle value across 738 of 1,611 square miles
  • 364 days Days called out middle value across 437 of 1,611 square miles

Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.

Fremont 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

1,611 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.

  1. Worth knowing

    Wells here make very little water

    The typical well makes 7 gallons a minute, against 12 gpm across the state. Workable for a house, a problem for livestock or irrigation.

    CDSS well permits 7 of 60 counties

    7 gpm here 7th of 60
    5.7 gpm650 gpm

    One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.

  2. Worth knowing

    Wells here have had to be re-drilled deeper

    42 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 10 of 59 counties

    42 here 10th of 59
    1156

    One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.

  3. Worth knowing

    Soil here holds water at the surface rather than letting it through

    96% 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 10 of 60 counties

    96% here 10th of 60
    state 83% 19%100%

    One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.

  4. Worth knowing

    Water systems here have unresolved health violations

    3 of this county's 16 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 13 of 44 counties

    3 here 13th of 44
    117

    One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.

  5. Context

    Dams here are rated unsatisfactory

    3 of this county's 29 dams carry an unsatisfactory condition rating. A storage right behind a failing dam is water you cannot count on.

    Colorado Dam Safety 16 of 42 counties

    3 here 16th of 42
    110

    One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.

  6. Worth knowing

    A listing's priority date will overstate seniority here

    38% 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 19 years.

    CDSS water rights, net amounts 17 of 60 counties

    38% here 17th of 60
    state 30% 4%54%

    One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.

  7. Worth knowing

    There are many impoundments here with no decreed storage right

    684 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.

    CDSS structures 7 of 58 counties

    684 here 7th of 58
    13,931

    One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.

  8. Context

    Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated

    53% 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 20 of 52 counties

    53% here 20th of 52
    state 44% 0.4%96%

    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 Fremont County