Domestic
243,096 of Colorado’s 600,017 well permits are decreed for this — 40.5%.
What this use allows
Domestic means household water, and usually a little more — the commonest decreed use in Colorado by a wide margin.
| Measurement | Median | 90th percentile | Colorado median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depth | 200 ft | 560 ft | 148 ft — deeper here (171,364 permits, 70 %) |
| Yield | 11 gpm | 15 gpm | 10 gpm — higher here (75,862 permits, 31 %) |
| Static water level | 72 ft | 260 ft | 58 ft — higher here (147,709 permits, 61 %) |
Where they are
| County | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| El Paso | 28,862 | 11.9% |
| Jefferson | 15,063 | 6.2% |
| Weld | 14,428 | 5.9% |
| Douglas | 13,804 | 5.7% |
| Elbert | 10,857 | 4.5% |
| La Plata | 10,644 | 4.4% |
| Adams | 9,364 | 3.9% |
| Boulder | 8,225 | 3.4% |
| Larimer | 7,975 | 3.3% |
| Arapahoe | 6,656 | 2.7% |
| Park | 6,433 | 2.6% |
| Pueblo | 5,760 | 2.4% |
| Chaffee | 5,602 | 2.3% |
| Garfield | 5,381 | 2.2% |
| Fremont | 5,023 | 2.1% |
| Routt | 4,390 | 1.8% |
| Rio Grande | 4,314 | 1.8% |
| Logan | 4,286 | 1.8% |
| Gunnison | 4,179 | 1.7% |
| Alamosa | 3,719 | 1.5% |
| Morgan | 3,592 | 1.5% |
| Yuma | 3,411 | 1.4% |
| Conejos | 3,242 | 1.3% |
| Grand | 3,209 | 1.3% |
| Saguache | 3,063 | 1.3% |
| Custer | 3,055 | 1.3% |
| Teller | 2,730 | 1.1% |
| Huerfano | 2,606 | 1.1% |
| Summit | 2,336 | 1.0% |
| Pitkin | 2,295 | 0.9% |
What happened to these permits
155,402 of the 243,096 permits decreed for domestic ended with a well the Division was told about — 63.9%. And 33,353 expired without one: 13.7%.
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.
| Status | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Well Constructed | 155,402 | 63.9% |
| Permit Expired | 33,353 | 13.7% |
| Permit Canceled | 10,935 | 4.5% |
| Well Replaced - Abandonment Required | 10,620 | 4.4% |
| Permit Issued | 9,763 | 4.0% |
| Well Abandoned | 9,485 | 3.9% |
| Application Information Requested | 4,291 | 1.8% |
| Application Denied | 1,731 | 0.7% |
| Application Received | 1,269 | 0.5% |
| 1,225 | 0.5% |
Buying land in Colorado, or need a well drilled?
243,096 well permits are on the Division’s register in Colorado, 33,353 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 decreed uses
- Household Use Only 105,372
- Monitoring/sampling 91,022
- Irrigation 47,689
- Stock 31,328
- Commercial 22,356
- Other 18,823
- Not stated 15,448
- Municipal 9,424
- Industrial 8,665
- Geothermal 3,815