Western Water Data

Costilla County, Colorado — water rights summary

Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 1,149 water rights on record in Costilla County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1850-12-31 to 2000-05-04.

At a glance

1,149water rights on record
144,078acre-feet absolute (perfected)
881acre-feet conditional (decreed, not yet perfected)
1.0%of rights carry a conditional portion

CFS on record: 3,750.3 absolute · 3.7 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.

Risk: absolute vs conditional

Worth knowing: 12 rights in Costilla 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 Costilla County's rights are distributed.

EraRightsShare
pre-190025221.9%
1900-194942136.6%
1950-196938833.8%
1970-1999847.3%
2000+40.3%

What the water is decreed for

Decreed useRights
Irrigation672
Domestic454
Stock238
Augmentation58
Commercial46
Other44

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
1850-12-31W3002 WELL NO 02GROUNDWATER: TRINCHERA CREEK0.033 CFSDomestic, Stockstate record
1852-04-10SALAZAR DRITO SECO2.0 CFSStorage, Irrigation, Recreation, Fishery, Stock, Augmentation, Other, Wildlifestate record
1852-04-10SAN LUIS PEOPLES DCULEBRA CREEK21.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1852-04-30SAN PEDRO DCULEBRA CREEK19.5 CFSIrrigationstate record
1853-08-31MONTEZ DRITO SECO1.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1854-03-31VALLEJOS DVALLEJOS CREEK17.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1855-04-30ACEQUIACITA DCOSTILLA CREEK1.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1856-04-30SAN ACACIO DCULEBRA CREEK46.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1857-04-30CHALIFU DCOSTILLA CREEK10.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1857-11-30CERRO DCULEBRA CREEK40.0 CFSIrrigationstate record

Need this for a deal?

This page is the summary. The full file for Costilla County covers every one of the 1,149 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.