Western Water Data

Alamosa County, Colorado — water rights summary

Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 3,403 water rights on record in Alamosa County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1865-12-31 to 2004-12-28.

At a glance

3,403water rights on record
91,840acre-feet absolute (perfected)
84,529acre-feet conditional (decreed, not yet perfected)
0.5%of rights carry a conditional portion

CFS on record: 3,512.4 absolute · 301.9 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.

Risk: absolute vs conditional

Worth knowing: 16 rights in Alamosa County carry a conditional portion, water that is decreed but not yet perfected. Absolute and conditional are not the same asset.

Seniority by era

In a dry year the oldest rights are served first. This is how Alamosa County's rights are distributed.

EraRightsShare
pre-19001985.8%
1900-19491,53045.0%
1950-19691,13633.4%
1970-199953015.6%
2000+90.3%

What the water is decreed for

Decreed useRights
Irrigation1,862
Domestic1,445
Stock1,124
Commercial167
Municipal54
Recreation43

The ten most senior rights on record

Ranked by the state's own priority administration number, the figure DWR uses to order rights by seniority.

PriorityStructureSourceAmount UsesVerify
1865-12-31W2171 WELL NO 02GROUNDWATER: CONFINED SAN LUIS VALLEY0.011 CFSDomestic, Stockstate record
1870-03-01HANSEN LA JARA OVFL D 3LA JARA CREEK21.28 CFSIrrigationstate record
1870-03-01SWAMP DLA JARA CREEK2.49 CFSIrrigationstate record
1873-04-01MEYER DNORTH ZAPATA CREEK7.0 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Commercial, Recreation, Domestic, Augmentation, Rechargestate record
1874-05-20TRUJILLO DSAND CREEK13.33 CFSIrrigationstate record
1874-09-20MEADOW OVERFLOWRIO GRANDE3.2 CFSIrrigationstate record
1875-04-01EXCELSIOR DRIO GRANDE8.4 CFSIrrigationstate record
1875-05-10LOS OJOS DBIG SPRING CREEK33.33 CFSIrrigationstate record
1875-12-31W1447 WELL NO 03GROUNDWATER: CONFINED SAN LUIS VALLEY0.089 CFSDomestic, Stockstate record
1877-05-01HULL DBIG SPRING CREEK16.66 CFSIrrigationstate record

Need this for a deal?

This page is the summary. The full file for Alamosa County covers every one of the 3,403 rights, with its priority date, seniority number, absolute and conditional amounts, decreed uses and a link to each official record, as a spreadsheet.

Buying, lending on, or listing irrigated ground here? Ask for the county file, or for a single property's water summary. The first one is on me.

erik@westernwaterdata.com

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Records last updated 10 September 2026.