Western Water Data

Mineral County, Colorado — water rights summary

Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 554 water rights on record in Mineral County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1872-06-09 to 2018-12-31.

At a glance

554water rights on record
46,225acre-feet absolute (perfected)
1,649acre-feet conditional (decreed, not yet perfected)
9.2%of rights carry a conditional portion

CFS on record: 5,378.4 absolute · 81.5 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.

Risk: absolute vs conditional

Worth knowing: 51 rights in Mineral 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 Mineral County's rights are distributed.

EraRightsShare
pre-19008916.1%
1900-194917531.6%
1950-19699417.0%
1970-199915728.3%
2000+397.0%

What the water is decreed for

Decreed useRights
Irrigation248
Domestic196
Fishery107
Minimum streamflow92
Commercial91
Stock83

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
1879-05-31WASSEN DWILLOW CREEK6.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1888-04-01SPRING RANCH DRIO GRANDE1.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1888-12-31W1395 WELL NO 01GROUNDWATER: RIO GRANDE0.056 CFSCommercial, Domesticstate record
1888-12-3125CW3006 WELL NO 1RGROUNDWATER: RIO GRANDE0.056 CFSDomesticstate record
1888-12-3125CW3006 WELL NO 1RGROUNDWATER: RIO GRANDE0.056 CFSDomesticstate record
1890-10-31CHAPSON AND HOWE DITCHWEST FORK SAN JUAN RIVER3.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1874-06-30JESSUP D 1RIO GRANDE0.3 CFSIrrigationstate record
1880-07-15TROUT DALE DCLEAR CREEK3.2 CFSIrrigationstate record
1882-06-304 U R DITCHGOOSE CREEK1.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1882-07-25LAKENAN DBOULDER CREEK0.6 CFSIrrigationstate record

Need this for a deal?

This page is the summary. The full file for Mineral County covers every one of the 554 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.