Western Water Data

Delta County, Colorado — water rights summary

Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 3,777 water rights on record in Delta County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1878-07-31 to 2025-12-03.

At a glance

3,777water rights on record
74,605acre-feet absolute (perfected)
58,052acre-feet conditional (decreed, not yet perfected)
8.9%of rights carry a conditional portion

CFS on record: 5,201.5 absolute · 1,542.7 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.

Risk: absolute vs conditional

Worth knowing: 336 rights in Delta 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 Delta County's rights are distributed.

EraRightsShare
pre-190088323.4%
1900-19491,04527.7%
1950-19693569.4%
1970-199986522.9%
2000+62816.6%

What the water is decreed for

Decreed useRights
Irrigation2,848
Stock1,017
Domestic749
Wildlife305
Fishery304
Recreation161

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
1881-12-17CEDAREDGE PIPELINESURFACE CREEK1.05 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Domestic, Power generation, Otherstate record
1881-12-17ALFALFA DITCHSURFACE CREEK14.15 CFSStorage, Irrigation, Municipal, Domestic, Stockstate record
1881-12-17BUTTES DITCHSURFACE CREEK1.1 CFSIrrigationstate record
1881-12-17FORREST DITCHSURFACE CREEK1.5 CFSIrrigationstate record
1881-12-17ADDITIONAL SPRING NO1BEAVER CREEK0.25 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Domesticstate record
1881-12-17ADDITIONAL SPRING NO2BEAVER CREEK0.1 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Domestic, Stockstate record
1881-12-17ADDITIONAL SPRING NO3BEAVER CREEK0.3 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Domesticstate record
1881-12-17ADDITIONAL SPRING NO4BEAVER CREEK0.1 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Domesticstate record
1881-12-17ADDITIONAL SPRING NO9SURFACE CREEK0.1 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Domesticstate record
1881-12-17ORCHARD CITY PIPELINESURFACE CREEK1.0 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Domesticstate record

Need this for a deal?

This page is the summary. The full file for Delta County covers every one of the 3,777 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.