Western Water Data

Summit County, Colorado — water rights summary

Seniority, absolute versus conditional water, and decreed uses for all 1,598 water rights on record in Summit County, taken from the state's own records. Priority dates run from 1869-07-01 to 2022-06-28.

At a glance

1,598water rights on record
666,740acre-feet absolute (perfected)
174,174acre-feet conditional (decreed, not yet perfected)
13.9%of rights carry a conditional portion

CFS on record: 6,349.2 absolute · 1,443.4 conditional. Flow (CFS) and volume (AF) are never added together.

Risk: absolute vs conditional

Worth knowing: 222 rights in Summit 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 Summit County's rights are distributed.

EraRightsShare
pre-190020612.9%
1900-194937323.3%
1950-196917511.0%
1970-199969843.7%
2000+1469.1%

What the water is decreed for

Decreed useRights
Irrigation766
Domestic627
Municipal432
Augmentation309
Commercial255
Recreation250

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
1869-07-01MARYLAND NO 1 DITCHWILLOW CREEK5.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1869-07-01MARYLAND NO 1 DITCHWILLOW CREEK10.5 CFSIndustrialstate record
1874-05-30MARYLAND NO 2 DITCHWILLOW CREEK8.0 CFSIrrigation, Municipal, Commercial, Industrial, Domestic, Augmentationstate record
1874-05-30MARYLAND NO 2 DITCHWILLOW CREEK60.0 AFIrrigation, Municipal, Commercial, Industrial, Domestic, Augmentationstate record
1875-07-12KIRKWOOD DITCHSLATE CREEK3.25 CFSIrrigationstate record
1878-07-15KUMNIG NO 1 DITCHOTTER CREEK1.5 CFSIrrigationstate record
1878-07-15NEW KUMNIG DITCHOTTER CREEK0.5 CFSIrrigationstate record
1880-06-01UTE CREEK NO 1SQUAW CREEK1.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1880-06-05UTE CREEK NO 2SQUAW CREEK1.0 CFSIrrigationstate record
1880-07-07LUSHER DITCH - DOT PLACERBLUE RIVER0.2817 CFSFire, Domestic, Augmentationstate record

Need this for a deal?

This page is the summary. The full file for Summit County covers every one of the 1,598 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.