Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Morgan 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.
- 1,937 Live water rights across 1,296 square miles
- 7,152 Wells drilled across 1,296 square miles
- 114,001 ac Irrigated ground across 1,296 square miles
- 84 ft Well depth middle value across 958 of 1,296 square miles
- 305 days Days called out middle value across 367 of 1,296 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Morgan 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
1,296 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.
Worth knowing
Wells here get plugged and abandoned more than most
18.9% of well permits end in a plugging, 956 wells in all. A well sealed shut is the clearest verdict a driller ever files.
CDSS well permit action history 7 of 60 counties
18.9% here 7th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Water here is called out for a large part of the year
The median right is out of priority 198 days a year on DWR's own analysis. The worst year on record here was 322 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 8 of 20 counties
198 days here 8th of 20 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
A lot of the water decreed here was never built
10% of rights are conditional only. A court said somebody may build it and nobody has.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 9 of 58 counties
10% here 9th of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Dams here are rated unsatisfactory
4 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 12 of 42 counties
4 here 12th of 42 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
26 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 18 of 59 counties
26 here 18th 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
2 of this county's 8 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.
Context
Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated
48% 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 25 of 52 counties
48% here 25th of 52 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 Morgan County