Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Ouray 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.
- 1,475 Live water rights across 545 square miles
- 814 Wells drilled across 545 square miles
- 12,798 ac Irrigated ground across 545 square miles
- 220 ft Well depth middle value across 185 of 545 square miles
- 27 days Days called out middle value across 158 of 545 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Ouray 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
545 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 here has already been taken away for non-use
11% 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 3 of 59 counties
11% here 3rd of 59 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
The water table here sits far below the surface
The median static water level is 108 feet down, against 46 ft across the state. That is pumping cost every day the well runs.
CDSS well permits 6 of 60 counties
108 ft here 6th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Nobody measures what most structures here divert
63% of rights sit on structures where DWR keeps no diversion record. There is no way to check the paper against what actually came through.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 16 of 60 counties
63% here 16th of 60 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 5 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
A lot of this county is wet ground
49% 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 24 of 59 counties
49% here 24th of 59 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
29% 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 35 of 52 counties
29% here 35th 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 Ouray County