# Stock well permits in Colorado — 31,328

> 31,328 Colorado wells are permitted for stock. What that allows, where they are, and how deep they go.

## Stock

**31,328** of Colorado’s 600,017 well permits are decreed for this — 5.2%.

### What this use allows

Stock means watering livestock.

*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 | **130 ft** | 360 ft | 148 ft — shallower here (22,403 permits, 72 %) |
| Yield | **10 gpm** | 20 gpm | 10 gpm — the same here (5,132 permits, 16 %) |
| Static water level | **66 ft** | 202 ft | 58 ft — higher here (17,199 permits, 55 %) |

### Where they are

| County | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Yuma](/county/yuma/stock.md) | 3,302 | 10.5% |
| [Weld](/county/weld/stock.md) | 2,360 | 7.5% |
| [Elbert](/county/elbert/stock.md) | 2,187 | 7.0% |
| [Washington](/county/washington/stock.md) | 1,958 | 6.2% |
| [Lincoln](/county/lincoln/stock.md) | 1,666 | 5.3% |
| [El Paso](/county/el-paso/stock.md) | 1,562 | 5.0% |
| [Kit Carson](/county/kit-carson/stock.md) | 1,441 | 4.6% |
| [Logan](/county/logan/stock.md) | 1,438 | 4.6% |
| [Las Animas](/county/las-animas/stock.md) | 1,309 | 4.2% |
| [Baca](/county/baca/stock.md) | 1,206 | 3.8% |
| [Morgan](/county/morgan/stock.md) | 1,075 | 3.4% |
| [Cheyenne](/county/cheyenne.md) | 711 | 2.3% |
| [Moffat](/county/moffat.md) | 685 | 2.2% |
| [Saguache](/county/saguache.md) | 656 | 2.1% |
| [Prowers](/county/prowers.md) | 631 | 2.0% |
| [Arapahoe](/county/arapahoe.md) | 612 | 2.0% |
| [Pueblo](/county/pueblo.md) | 594 | 1.9% |
| [Adams](/county/adams.md) | 569 | 1.8% |
| [Huerfano](/county/huerfano.md) | 543 | 1.7% |
| [Kiowa](/county/kiowa.md) | 527 | 1.7% |
| [Bent](/county/bent.md) | 453 | 1.4% |
| [Douglas](/county/douglas.md) | 447 | 1.4% |
| [Conejos](/county/conejos.md) | 407 | 1.3% |
| [Park](/county/park.md) | 366 | 1.2% |
| [Alamosa](/county/alamosa.md) | 362 | 1.2% |
| [Larimer](/county/larimer.md) | 352 | 1.1% |
| [Sedgwick](/county/sedgwick.md) | 319 | 1.0% |
| [Otero](/county/otero.md) | 311 | 1.0% |
| [Crowley](/county/crowley.md) | 297 | 0.9% |
| [Rio Grande](/county/rio-grande.md) | 269 | 0.9% |

### What happened to these permits

**20,902** of the 31,328 permits decreed for stock ended with a
well the Division was told about — 66.7%. And
**2,828** expired without one: 9.0%.

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 | 20,902 | 66.7% |
| Permit Expired | 2,828 | 9.0% |
| Well Abandoned | 1,652 | 5.3% |
| Permit Issued | 1,461 | 4.7% |
| Permit Canceled | 1,207 | 3.9% |
| Well Replaced - Abandonment Required | 1,103 | 3.5% |
|   | 791 | 2.5% |
| Application Information Requested | 478 | 1.5% |
| Application Denied | 253 | 0.8% |
| Application Received | 230 | 0.7% |

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

31,328 well permits are on the Division’s register in Colorado, 2,828 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
- [Monitoring/sampling](/use/monitoring-sampling.md) 91,022
- [Irrigation](/use/irrigation.md) 47,689
- [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/stock/
Fonte: Well Application Permit — Colorado Division of Water Resources
Recolha: 2026-08-21