Western Water Data

Broomfield County, Colorado — water rights summary

Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 78 water rights on record in Broomfield County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1863-06-06 to 2020-12-31.

At a glance

78water rights on record
6,261acre-feet absolute (perfected)
28,410acre-feet conditional (decreed, not yet perfected)
32.1%of rights carry a conditional portion

CFS on record: 57.7 absolute · 373.7 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.

Risk: absolute vs conditional

Worth knowing: Broomfield County has about 4.5x more acre-feet decreed as conditional than as absolute. Conditional water is decreed on paper but not yet put to beneficial use. A buyer or lender who does not separate the two is valuing a different asset than the one on the ground.

Seniority by era

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

EraRightsShare
pre-19001620.5%
1900-1949911.5%
1950-19691316.7%
1970-19991823.1%
2000+2228.2%

What the water is decreed for

Decreed useRights
Irrigation54
Domestic48
Municipal47
Recreation33
Stock31
Industrial30

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
1863-06-06STREICH WELL 1GROUNDWATER: BOULDER CREEK0.033 CFSDomesticstate record
1888-05-01SAGAR RESERVOIRSOUTH BOULDER CREEK88.0 AFStorage, Irrigation, Municipal, Commercial, Industrial, Recreation, Fishery, Fire, Domestic, Stock, Augmentation, Wildlifestate record
1888-05-01SAGAR RESERVOIRSOUTH BOULDER CREEK0.25 CFSStorage, Irrigation, Municipal, Commercial, Industrial, Recreation, Fishery, Fire, Domestic, Stock, Augmentation, Wildlifestate record
1878-12-31GREAT WESTERN RESERVOIRWALNUT CREEK98.0 AFIrrigationstate record
1886-11-15GREAT WESTERN RESERVOIRWALNUT CREEK198.0 AFMunicipalstate record
1888-09-01GREAT WESTERN RESERVOIRWALNUT CREEK21.25 AFMunicipalstate record
1889-05-01NISSEN RES 1CLEAR CREEK5.0 AFIrrigationstate record
1889-12-07TOM FROST PONDBIG DRY CREEK72.5 AFIrrigationstate record
1889-12-10NISSEN RES 2CLEAR CREEK143.5 AFIrrigationstate record
1889-12-16GREAT WESTERN RESERVOIRWALNUT CREEK154.0 AFMunicipalstate record

Need this for a deal?

This page is the summary. The full file for Broomfield County covers every one of the 78 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.