Colorado water rights

498,096 rights at 498,096 points of diversion in 64 counties · fetched October 8, 2026 from Colorado Division of Water Resources (CDSS)

Open Colorado on the mapHow Colorado water rights work
Groundwater
401,805
Surface water
48,016
Storage
25,054
Spring
23,221

In Colorado's data, 325,224 records carry no priority date, 173,125 name no owner, 10 have coordinates outside Colorado's county lines. Why

Colorado at a glance

Doctrine
Prior appropriation
Who decrees rights
Water courts in seven water divisions
Who administers them
State Engineer and a division engineer in each division
Abandonment
10 consecutive years of nonuse raises a rebuttable presumption
Conditional rights
Diligence must be shown every six years

Counties

Counties come from where each right's first point of diversion falls on Census county lines.

Oldest priority dates in Colorado

Seniority is weighed among rights on the same stream system, so this is where the oldest records are rather than a statewide ranking.

Priority date · senior to junior

  • Before 1880
  • 1880–1899
  • 1900–1919
  • 1920–1949
  • 1950–1972
  • 1973–1999
  • 2000 and later
  • No priority date