Colorado ยท county water record
Water in Sedgwick 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.
- 327 Live water rights across 576 square miles
- 1,513 Wells drilled across 576 square miles
- 23,718 ac Irrigated ground across 576 square miles
- 291 ft Well depth middle value across 389 of 576 square miles
- 305 days Days called out middle value across 94 of 576 square miles
Point at any square mile to read what is on it. Hover the maps below to compare them.
Sedgwick 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
576 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
Ground here is prime farmland, but only if it is irrigated
86% of sections carry soil the USDA classes as 'prime farmland if irrigated', against 44% across the state. 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 4 of 52 counties
86% here 4th of 52 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Much of this county sits in a designated groundwater basin
33% of well permits are inside NORTHERN HIGH PLAINS, where new permits are restricted or unavailable. Before anything else about water here, find out whether you can get one.
CDSS well permits 7 of 15 counties
33% here 7th of 15 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
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 7 of 60 counties
3 here 7th of 60 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
9% of rights are conditional only. A court said somebody may build it and nobody has.
CDSS water rights, net amounts 12 of 58 counties
9% here 12th of 58 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Stands out
Every town here drinks the same water a well would draw
All 3 of this county's community water systems run on groundwater rather than surface water. A municipal supply is the best-monitored well in the county, so its record is the closest thing to a free test of the aquifer under this ground.
EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System 1 of 56 counties
100% here 1st of 56 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Worth knowing
Wells here get plugged and abandoned more than most
13.6% of well permits end in a plugging, 154 wells in all. A well sealed shut is the clearest verdict a driller ever files.
CDSS well permit action history 14 of 60 counties
13.6% here 14th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
Half the wells drilled here never had a pump put in
62% 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 24 of 60 counties
62% here 24th of 60 One bar per Colorado county from lowest to highest. Point at one to name it.
Context
A lot of this county is wet ground
48% 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 25 of 59 counties
48% here 25th 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
1 of this county's 3 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 29 of 44 counties
1 here 29th of 44 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 Sedgwick County