Colorado · counties
Water in Rio Grande County
What the state and federal record says about water across Rio Grande County. Each figure names the agency it came from.
Can I drill a well here?
It depends on your lot: its size, and when it was created
-
Where the lot decides (over-appropriated ground)
What a household well may serve depends on the lot's size and on when and how it was created:
Lot of 35 acres or more
A household well can serve up to three homes, one acre of lawn and garden, and livestock. A 35-acre tract platted as part of a subdivision counts as part of the subdivision instead.
Under 35 acres, created before June 1, 1972 or by a county exemption
A household well for use inside one house only. No lawn, garden or livestock.
Under 35 acres, in a subdivision approved June 1, 1972 or later
No well by right. DWR weighs every well in the subdivision together, so in practice the subdivision's own water supply plan decides what a well may do.
- This is the San Luis Valley (Water Division 3). The state declares the whole Rio Grande basin over-appropriated, so the lot decides what a household well may serve. Any well bigger than a household well must pump under a subdistrict plan, an augmentation plan or a substitute water supply plan.
- One exempt well per legal parcel. Inside a town or a water district's service area DWR generally issues no household well permit.
What has actually been permitted in Rio Grande County
- 632household well permits issued since 2015
- 193of them for use inside the house only
- 439for full household use
- 208feet, the typical depth
- 10gallons a minute, the typical yield
CDSS well permits Decided by: DWR, at permit application. Appeals go to the water judge within 35 days.
- 4,269 Live water rights across 921 square miles
- 7,354 Wells drilled across 921 square miles
- 96,109 ac Irrigated ground across 921 square miles
- 112 ft Well depth middle value across 439 of 921 square miles
- 353 days Days called out middle value across 305 of 921 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Rio Grande County by the square mile
Each figure below is one number for the whole county. The map places the same records on the ground, square mile by square mile.
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
921 surveyed sections, drawn one square mile to a square. The shading is scaled against every county in Colorado, so a color 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.
This is farming country and the water is committed to it
Structures here serve 204,960 mapped irrigated acres, against 32,919 ac in the median county. 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 1 of 45 counties
204,960 ac here 1st of 45 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water here usually needs an augmentation plan to be legal
0.5% of rights sit under an augmentation plan, against 0% in the median county. Replacement water has to come from somewhere and is almost always paid for, every year, and the obligation runs with the land.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 3 of 22 counties
0.5% here 3rd of 22 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A listing's priority date will overstate seniority here
47% of water rights were decreed more than a decade after the water was first claimed, against 30% in the median county. Listings quote the claim date. A call is administered on the decree date, and the median gap here is 23 years.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 5 of 60 counties
47% here 5th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Wells here have had to be re-drilled deeper
39 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 12 of 62 counties
39 here 12th of 62 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water systems here have unresolved health violations
3 of this county's 9 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 45 counties
3 here 13th of 45 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
The senior water here was claimed before Colorado was a state
The oldest appropriation on record in this county is 1850, which predates statehood in 1876. Seniority is the whole of Colorado water law and it is absolute: a right from the 1850s is in front of everything filed since, every year, in every dry year.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 60 counties
1850 here 1st of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
A lot of this county is wet ground
56% 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 21 of 63 counties
56% here 21st of 63 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Water here is called out for a large part of the year
The median right is out of priority 133 days a year on DWR's own analysis. The worst year on record here was 366 days.
DWR administrative call analysis 29 of 49 counties
133 days here 29th of 49 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated
36% 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 36 of 56 counties
36% here 36th of 56 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
For one parcel in Rio Grande County
The figures above describe the whole county. The Land, Development and Rights reports answer for one parcel: what water conveys, what a well permit would allow, and what the county requires to split it. Each answer gives the evidence within a mile and who decides.
Search an address in Rio Grande County