Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Lake 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.
- 415 Live water rights across 399 square miles
- 1,829 Wells drilled across 399 square miles
- 0 ac Irrigated ground across 399 square miles
- 91 ft Well depth middle value across 127 of 399 square miles
- 215 days Days called out middle value across 67 of 399 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Lake 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
399 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 this county is wet ground
83% of sections carry poorly drained soil, against 40% across the state, 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 2 of 59 counties
83% here 2nd of 59 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Water here changes hands and moves
25% of rights carry a transfer, exchange or alternate point event, against 11% across the state. An active market means a price exists, and it also means water can leave the ground it started on.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 4 of 60 counties
25% here 4th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
A lot of the water here is decreed to stay in the stream
12% 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 4 of 46 counties
12% here 4th of 46 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Towns hold a large share of the water here
25% 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 13 of 58 counties
25% here 13th of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
2 of this county's 7 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 20 of 44 counties
2 here 20th of 44 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
There are many impoundments here with no decreed storage right
332 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.
CDSS structures 12 of 58 counties
332 here 12th of 58 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 Lake County