Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Otero 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.
- 1,058 Live water rights across 1,253 square miles
- 2,301 Wells drilled across 1,253 square miles
- 74,138 ac Irrigated ground across 1,253 square miles
- 60 ft Well depth middle value across 420 of 1,253 square miles
- 365 days Days called out middle value across 257 of 1,253 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Otero 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
1,253 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
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
17 of this county's 23 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 1 of 44 counties
17 here 1st of 44 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
This is farming country and the water is committed to it
Structures here serve 124,887 mapped irrigated acres, against 32,919 ac across the state. That acreage is what the decreed water is already doing, so a new use competes with it rather than adding to it.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 4 of 45 counties
124,887 ac here 4th of 45 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Reservoirs here are under a storage restriction
5 dams here are restricted, meaning the state will not let them fill to their decreed capacity until repairs are made. A storage right behind a restricted dam is water that legally exists and physically cannot be held.
Colorado Dam Safety 6 of 39 counties
5 here 6th of 39 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
70% 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 11 of 60 counties
70% here 11th 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
39% 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 15 of 60 counties
39% here 15th of 60 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
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 21 of 52 counties
53% here 21st of 52 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
537 reservoirs of record carry no storage decree. Each one is a question somebody has not answered.
CDSS structures 10 of 58 counties
537 here 10th 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 Otero County