Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 1,826 water rights on record in San Miguel County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1876-10-01 to 2025-11-25.
CFS on record: 2,961.2 absolute · 1,140.8 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.
Worth knowing: San Miguel County has about 1.7x 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 San Miguel County's rights are distributed.
| Era | Rights | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pre-1900 | 184 | 10.1% | |
| 1900-1949 | 523 | 28.6% | |
| 1950-1969 | 171 | 9.4% | |
| 1970-1999 | 687 | 37.6% | |
| 2000+ | 261 | 14.3% |
| Decreed use | Rights |
|---|---|
| Irrigation | 871 |
| Stock | 825 |
| Domestic | 604 |
| Fire | 378 |
| Wildlife | 362 |
| Fishery | 347 |
Ranked by the state's own priority administration number, the figure DWR uses to order rights by seniority.
| Priority | Structure | Source | Amount | Uses | Verify |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1876-10-01 | NAVIKE DITCH | SAN MIGUEL RIVER | 1.7 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1877-10-01 | LEOPARD CREEK DITCH | LEOPARD CREEK | 21.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1877-10-01 | LEOPARD CREEK DITCH | LEOPARD CREEK | 21.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1881-06-30 | HASTINGS DITCH | ALDER CREEK | 2.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1882-06-01 | MARSHALL CREEK WTR RIGHT | SAN MIGUEL RIVER | 2.0 CFS | Commercial, Industrial | state record |
| 1883-06-01 | GROVE DITCH | BENNETT CREEK | 0.28 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1884-05-31 | NATURITA CANAL | BEAVER CREEK | 50.0 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1885-10-02 | LILYLANDS CANAL | WEST NATURITA CREEK | 0.26 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
| 1886-06-15 | CORNET CREEK WATER RIGHT | SAN MIGUEL RIVER | 4.28 CFS | Municipal, Fire, Domestic | state record |
| 1886-10-01 | LILYLANDS CANAL | WEST NATURITA CREEK | 0.39 CFS | Irrigation | state record |
This page is the summary. The full file for San Miguel County covers every one of the 1,826 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.