Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 389 water rights on record in Lake County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1860-05-01 to 2022-11-03.
CFS on record: 1,296.1 absolute · 479.4 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.
Worth knowing: Lake 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 Lake County's rights are distributed.
| Era | Rights | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pre-1900 | 122 | 31.4% | |
| 1900-1949 | 38 | 9.8% | |
| 1950-1969 | 52 | 13.4% | |
| 1970-1999 | 117 | 30.1% | |
| 2000+ | 60 | 15.4% |
| Decreed use | Rights |
|---|---|
| Domestic | 155 |
| Irrigation | 140 |
| Municipal | 77 |
| Industrial | 70 |
| Commercial | 66 |
| Minimum streamflow | 53 |
Ranked by the state's own priority administration number, the figure DWR uses to order rights by seniority.
| Priority | Structure | Source | Amount | Uses | Verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860-05-01 | STARR DITCH (LOWER PT) | EVANS GULCH | 51.0 CFS | Industrial, Domestic | state record |
| 1860-05-01 | EVANS GULCH RESERVOIR | EVANS GULCH | 1.15 CFS | Industrial, Domestic | state record |
| 1860-07-10 | IOWA GULCH INTAKE | IOWA GULCH | 11.737 CFS | Commercial, Industrial, Fire, Domestic | state record |
| 1862-05-01 | EVANS GULCH GALLERY | EVANS GULCH | 4.3 CFS | Commercial, Industrial, Domestic | state record |
| 1863-06-01 | EVANS GULCH GALLERY | EVANS GULCH | 2.2 CFS | Commercial, Industrial, Domestic | state record |
| 1867-11-15 | HOMESTAKE TROUT CLUB D | LONGS GULCH | 0.9333 CFS | Irrigation, Industrial, Recreation, Domestic, Augmentation | state record |
| 1871-12-31 | DELAPPE DITCH | ARKANSAS RIVER | 1.5 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1871-12-31 | EMPIRE CREEK DITCH | EMPIRE GULCH | 4.9 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1871-12-31 | CRYSTAL LAKE DITCH | CRYSTAL LAKE CREEK | 1.5 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1873-09-01 | STEVENS & LEITER DITCH | ARKANSAS RIVER | 27.572 CFS | Commercial, Industrial, Domestic | state record |
This page is the summary. The full file for Lake County covers every one of the 389 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.