Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 1,324 water rights on record in Chaffee County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1864-11-28 to 2022-05-31.
CFS on record: 1,768.1 absolute · 617.9 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.
Worth knowing: Chaffee County has about 1.2x 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.
In a dry year the oldest rights are served first. This is how Chaffee County's rights are distributed.
| Era | Rights | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pre-1900 | 384 | 29.0% | |
| 1900-1949 | 219 | 16.5% | |
| 1950-1969 | 310 | 23.4% | |
| 1970-1999 | 313 | 23.6% | |
| 2000+ | 98 | 7.4% |
| Decreed use | Rights |
|---|---|
| Domestic | 528 |
| Irrigation | 527 |
| Stock | 190 |
| Fire | 159 |
| Commercial | 148 |
| Fishery | 144 |
Ranked by the state's own priority administration number, the figure DWR uses to order rights by seniority.
| Priority | Structure | Source | Amount | Uses | Verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1864-11-28 | TROUT CREEK DITCH | TROUT CREEK | 3.18 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1864-11-28 | VALLEY HIGH RESERVOIR | TROUT CREEK | 0.02 CFS | Storage, Augmentation | state record |
| 1864-11-30 | LEESMEAGH DITCH | COTTONWOOD CREEK | 4.0 CFS | Irrigation, Municipal, Recreation, Fire, Domestic | state record |
| 1864-12-19 | THOMPSON DITCH | COTTONWOOD CREEK | 1.9 CFS | Irrigation, Domestic, Augmentation | state record |
| 1864-12-19 | BUENA VISTA TOWN INTAKE | COTTONWOOD CREEK | 2.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1864-12-19 | COTTONWOOD LAKE | SOUTH COTTONWOOD CREEK | 0.595 CFS | Augmentation | state record |
| 1865-09-30 | GILLILAND DITCH NO 1 | BROWNS CREEK | 1.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1865-09-30 | SMITH DITCH NO 1(BROWN) | BROWNS CREEK | 0.6 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1865-11-30 | HARVARD DITCH NO 2 | THREE ELK CREEK | 0.6 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1866-03-10 | HARRINGTON DITCH | SOUTH ARKANSAS RIVER | 3.24 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
This page is the summary. The full file for Chaffee County covers every one of the 1,324 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.
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Records last updated 10 September 2026.