Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 2,351 water rights on record in Pueblo County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1859-05-01 to 2022-12-13.
CFS on record: 4,856.2 absolute · 2,883.4 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.
Worth knowing: Pueblo County has about 1.3x 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 Pueblo County's rights are distributed.
| Era | Rights | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pre-1900 | 443 | 18.8% | |
| 1900-1949 | 807 | 34.3% | |
| 1950-1969 | 828 | 35.2% | |
| 1970-1999 | 210 | 8.9% | |
| 2000+ | 63 | 2.7% |
| Decreed use | Rights |
|---|---|
| Irrigation | 1,341 |
| Domestic | 912 |
| Stock | 525 |
| Municipal | 214 |
| Fire | 101 |
| Commercial | 97 |
Ranked by the state's own priority administration number, the figure DWR uses to order rights by seniority.
| Priority | Structure | Source | Amount | Uses | Verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1859-05-01 | RYE TOWN DITCH | GREENHORN CREEK | 0.1 CFS | Irrigation, Municipal | state record |
| 1859-05-01 | HICKLIN DITCH "A" | GREENHORN CREEK | 0.5 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1859-05-01 | HICKLIN DITCH "B" | GREENHORN CREEK | 1.7 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1861-04-01 | WARRANT BARNES & BAXTER | ARKANSAS RIVER | 6.2 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1861-04-01 | BESSEMER DITCH | ARKANSAS RIVER | 2.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1861-04-01 | BOOTH DITCH | ARKANSAS RIVER | 0.8 CFS | Irrigation, Municipal | state record |
| 1861-09-01 | ST CHARLES FLOOD DITCH | SAINT CHARLES RIVER | 2.0 CFS | Irrigation, Industrial, Domestic | state record |
| 1861-12-31 | BESSEMER DITCH | ARKANSAS RIVER | 20.0 CFS | Storage, Irrigation, Municipal, Domestic, Augmentation, Change of use return flow, All beneficial uses | state record |
| 1861-12-31 | ST CHARLES FLOOD DITCH | SAINT CHARLES RIVER | 1.42 CFS | Irrigation, Industrial, Domestic | state record |
| 1861-12-31 | PINE DRIVE WATER DIST | SAINT CHARLES RIVER | 0.1 CFS | Irrigation, Domestic | state record |
This page is the summary. The full file for Pueblo County covers every one of the 2,351 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.