# Monitoring/sampling well permits in Colorado — 91,022

> 91,022 Colorado wells are permitted for monitoring/sampling. What that allows, where they are, and how deep they go.

## Monitoring/sampling

**91,022** of Colorado’s 600,017 well permits are decreed for this — 15.2%.

### What this use allows

Monitoring/sampling means not a water supply at all — a hole drilled to watch the groundwater. These sit on the same register and are not wells anyone drinks from.

*Medians, on the permits where the Division was told — never a mean, which a few industrial wells would carry away*

| Measurement | Median | 90th percentile | Colorado median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depth | **27 ft** | 120 ft | 148 ft — shallower here (52,829 permits, 58 %) |
| Yield | **15 gpm** | 350 gpm | 10 gpm — higher here (249 permits, 0 %) |
| Static water level | **19 ft** | 109 ft | 58 ft — lower here (17,821 permits, 20 %) |

### Where they are

| County | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Weld](/county/weld/monitoring-sampling.md) | 10,978 | 12.1% |
| [Denver](/county/denver.md) | 9,298 | 10.2% |
| [Adams](/county/adams/monitoring-sampling.md) | 9,123 | 10.0% |
| [Jefferson](/county/jefferson/monitoring-sampling.md) | 8,093 | 8.9% |
| [El Paso](/county/el-paso/monitoring-sampling.md) | 5,469 | 6.0% |
| [Arapahoe](/county/arapahoe/monitoring-sampling.md) | 4,924 | 5.4% |
| [Boulder](/county/boulder/monitoring-sampling.md) | 3,864 | 4.2% |
| [Larimer](/county/larimer/monitoring-sampling.md) | 3,225 | 3.5% |
| [Garfield](/county/garfield/monitoring-sampling.md) | 3,038 | 3.3% |
| [Mesa](/county/mesa/monitoring-sampling.md) | 2,522 | 2.8% |
| [Pueblo](/county/pueblo/monitoring-sampling.md) | 2,493 | 2.7% |
| [Douglas](/county/douglas/monitoring-sampling.md) | 2,001 | 2.2% |
| [Eagle](/county/eagle/monitoring-sampling.md) | 1,202 | 1.3% |
| [Montrose](/county/montrose/monitoring-sampling.md) | 1,173 | 1.3% |
| [Morgan](/county/morgan/monitoring-sampling.md) | 1,103 | 1.2% |
| [Routt](/county/routt/monitoring-sampling.md) | 1,068 | 1.2% |
| [Summit](/county/summit.md) | 999 | 1.1% |
| [Gunnison](/county/gunnison.md) | 993 | 1.1% |
| [La Plata](/county/la-plata.md) | 988 | 1.1% |
| [Fremont](/county/fremont.md) | 973 | 1.1% |
| [Park](/county/park.md) | 958 | 1.1% |
| [Logan](/county/logan.md) | 942 | 1.0% |
| [Alamosa](/county/alamosa.md) | 837 | 0.9% |
| [Pitkin](/county/pitkin.md) | 771 | 0.8% |
| [San Miguel](/county/san-miguel.md) | 768 | 0.8% |
| [Grand](/county/grand.md) | 718 | 0.8% |
| [Moffat](/county/moffat.md) | 699 | 0.8% |
| [Saguache](/county/saguache.md) | 694 | 0.8% |
| [Las Animas](/county/las-animas.md) | 616 | 0.7% |
| [Rio Blanco](/county/rio-blanco.md) | 601 | 0.7% |

### What happened to these permits

**40,674** of the 91,022 permits decreed for monitoring/sampling ended with a
well the Division was told about — 44.7%. And
**26,150** expired without one: 28.7%.

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](/expired.md).

| Status | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Well Constructed | 40,674 | 44.7% |
| Permit Expired | 26,150 | 28.7% |
| Well Abandoned | 18,350 | 20.2% |
| Permit Issued | 3,681 | 4.0% |
| Permit Canceled | 1,242 | 1.4% |
| Application Received | 629 | 0.7% |
| Application Information Requested | 140 | 0.2% |
| See Associated Receipts | 57 | 0.1% |
| Application Withdrawn | 44 | 0.0% |
| Well Replaced - Abandonment Required | 24 | 0.0% |

### Buying land in Colorado, or need a well drilled?

91,022 well permits are on the Division’s register in Colorado, 26,150 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](/privacy.md).

### The other decreed uses

- [Domestic](/use/domestic.md) 243,096
- [Household Use Only](/use/household-use-only.md) 105,372
- [Irrigation](/use/irrigation.md) 47,689
- [Stock](/use/stock.md) 31,328
- [Commercial](/use/commercial.md) 22,356
- [Other](/use/other.md) 18,823
- [Not stated](/use/not-stated.md) 15,448
- [Municipal](/use/municipal.md) 9,424
- [Industrial](/use/industrial.md) 8,665
- [Geothermal](/use/geothermal.md) 3,815

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Página: https://wells-co.pages.dev/use/monitoring-sampling/
Fonte: Well Application Permit — Colorado Division of Water Resources
Recolha: 2026-08-21