Colorado ยท county water record
Water in San Juan 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.
- 118 Live water rights across 287 square miles
- 42 Wells drilled across 287 square miles
- 0 ac Irrigated ground across 287 square miles
- 102 ft Well depth middle value across 14 of 287 square miles
- 40 days Days called out middle value across 1 of 287 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
San Juan 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
287 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 the water decreed here was never built
24% of rights are conditional only, against 5% across the state. A court said somebody may build it and nobody has.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 1 of 58 counties
24% here 1st of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Most well permits ever issued here are dead
41% of 243 well permits are still live, against 69% across the state. An expired or cancelled permit is not permission to do anything.
CDSS well permits 1 of 60 counties
41% here 1st of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Soil here holds water at the surface rather than letting it through
100% of sections have hydrologic group D soil, against 83% across the state, the slowest-infiltrating class. Good ground for a stock pond, which will hold without lining. Bad ground for a septic absorption field and for well recharge, because one property drives all three.
USDA SSURGO soil survey 1 of 60 counties
100% here 1st of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Nobody pipes water in this county
There is no active community water system anywhere on the federal register here, so every property is on a well, a cistern, or a shared private supply.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 1 of 60 counties
1 here 1st 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
15% 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 2 of 46 counties
15% here 2nd of 46 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Most of the water rights on paper here are dead
Only 74% of this county's 302 rights are still live, against 94% across the state. Most of what a records search turns up here is history rather than water.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 4 of 60 counties
74% here 4th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Many decrees here name a structure that no longer exists
26% of rights attach to a structure DWR marks abandoned, historical or non-existent, against 5% across the state. A decree citing a ditch that is gone is a title problem, not a water supply.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 4 of 60 counties
26% here 4th of 60 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
72% 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 10 of 60 counties
72% here 10th 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
65% 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 15 of 60 counties
65% here 15th of 60 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
17% 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 16 of 58 counties
17% here 16th of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
A lot of this county is wet ground
40% 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 30 of 59 counties
40% here 30th of 59 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 San Juan County