When a well permit has expired

98,256 of 600,017 permits on the register — 16.4% — were issued and the well was never constructed.

The trap in a rural sale

A seller shows you a well permit. It is a real document, issued by the State, with a number on it. What it may not be is live: a Colorado well permit expires if the well is not constructed within the time the permit allows. 98,256 permits on this register are in exactly that position, and nothing on the paper itself tells you which.

The status field does. Type the permit number into the search box above and the first line of the answer is whether the well was built.

What every status means

Well Constructed — 332,910

the well was built and the Division was told so. This is the commonest status by a wide margin.

Permit Expired — 98,256

a permit issued and never used. A Colorado well permit lapses if the well is not constructed within the time allowed — the permit expires, not the water right.

Well Abandoned — 43,557

the well was plugged and abandoned, and the Division was notified.

Permit Issued — 24,606

issued and still live: the well may be built but has not been reported as built.

Permit Canceled — 22,795

cancelled before use.

Well Replaced - Abandonment Required — 16,431

a replacement well was permitted, and the old one must be plugged.

Application Received — 4,472

an application the Division has not yet acted on.

⚠️ What an expired permit does not mean

Not that you cannot get one. An expired permit is a lapsed application, not a refusal. In most cases a fresh permit can be applied for on the same parcel — but it is applied for under today’s rules and today’s allocation, which may not be what the old permit allowed.

Not that the water right is gone. A permit and a decreed water right are separate instruments. One expiring says nothing about the other, and a purchase turns on both.

Not that there is no well. Some wells predate permitting altogether. An absent or expired permit is a reason to ask, not an answer.

And not a judgement on anyone. Permits expire for ordinary reasons: a sale fell through, a build was postponed, the money went elsewhere. 98,256 of them is what an ordinary rate looks like across 65 counties and several decades.

The other end of the register

332,910 permits — 55.5% — ended with a well the Division was told about, and 43,557 wells were plugged and abandoned, which is also recorded. A plugged well on a parcel is a fact worth having before you plan around it.

An expired permit on land you are buying?

This site tells you what the register says. What it means for your purchase — whether a fresh permit is available on that parcel, and on what terms — takes someone who works Colorado water. Tell us the parcel and we pass the request on.

We take no commission and we recommend nobody. 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.

Not a consumer reporting agency. This site and the datasets sold from it are not consumer reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and must not be used to decide anyone's eligibility for employment, credit, insurance, housing, or any other purpose covered by the FCRA. If you need a background check, use a screening company that operates as a consumer reporting agency.