wells-co

The All Unnamed Aquifers aquifer

465,783 permits — 77.6% of the register — are recorded against this aquifer.

What this aquifer is

the Division’s catch-all, and by far the largest group. It means the permit is not tied to one of the named Denver Basin formations.

Which aquifer a well draws on is not administrative detail: the Denver Basin formations have their own legal regime, and alluvial water is tied to the surface stream, which is why it is regulated differently. The depth below is the practical consequence.

Medians, on the permits where the Division was told — never a mean, which a few industrial wells would carry away
MeasurementMedian90th percentileColorado median
Depth125 ft478 ft148 ft — shallower here (297,182 permits, 64 %)
Yield10 gpm15 gpm10 gpm — the same here (95,845 permits, 21 %)
Static water level45 ft190 ft58 ft — lower here (226,401 permits, 49 %)

Where they are

CountyPermitsShare
Jefferson38,9868.4%
Weld25,8365.5%
El Paso23,9165.1%
Park22,0154.7%
Larimer18,8054.0%
Boulder18,3153.9%
La Plata17,8873.8%
Adams16,0113.4%
Pueblo11,6852.5%
Garfield11,6672.5%
Grand11,1142.4%
Teller10,4882.3%
Denver10,2012.2%
Fremont10,1112.2%
Chaffee9,9902.1%
Arapahoe9,2152.0%
Douglas9,1102.0%
Gunnison8,7171.9%
Morgan8,4091.8%
Summit8,3551.8%
Logan8,3311.8%
Yuma7,9121.7%
Las Animas7,8081.7%
Rio Grande7,4681.6%
Routt6,9991.5%
Custer6,8191.5%

What happened to these permits

263,383 of the 465,783 permits on this aquifer ended with a well the Division was told about — 56.5%. And 78,015 expired without one: 16.7%.

An expired permit is the trap in a rural sale. A seller can produce a permit that lapsed years ago, and a permit is not a water right — the two are separate, and a purchase turns on both. What an expired permit does and does not mean.

StatusPermitsShare
Well Constructed263,38356.5%
Permit Expired78,01516.7%
Well Abandoned34,1967.3%
Permit Issued17,8503.8%
Permit Canceled17,2393.7%
Well Replaced - Abandonment Required14,3743.1%
Application Denied13,5722.9%
Application Information Requested9,5662.1%
Application Received3,2520.7%
NA2,5390.5%

Buying land in Colorado, or need a well drilled?

465,783 well permits are on the Division’s register in Colorado, 78,015 of them expired. This site tells you what a permit says; it does not drill, and it is not advice on a water right. Tell us where and we pass the request to drillers and water-rights advisers working in Colorado.

We take no commission and we recommend no driller. We have no arrangement with any firm today — we are collecting these requests in order to go and find them. What we do with this.

The other aquifers