Water, water, water. If you live in town you are use to turning on the faucet and water coming out. You pay the bill every month and the water is available to use. It seems like you have an unlimited supply. You hear about water shortages but feel that they don’t affect you. So, how do water rights impact your property?
Source of Water
What is your experience if you live outside a municipality in Northern Colorado? One of the most important aspects of buying a rural property in Colorado is understanding the water supply. Water is important. Someone has once said that water is life. Most properties in the country are serviced by a well, district water or a spring.
Drill Baby, Drill
If you are purchasing a property and would like to drill a well what are the types of wells and how are they different? One type of well that you might obtain is a household well. Household well is for use only inside the house. No exterior watering of plants, animals, or even washing your car. The rule is only inside the house also includes not filling a hot tub. This is restrictive.
How Do Water Rights Impact Your Property, Domestic Wells
The other type of well that you might obtain is a domestic well. Domestic wells are typically associated with rural properties. A domestic well allows for normal indoor use. A domestic well, also more than likely will allow for the watering of an outdoor animal like a horse, a donkey or maybe a goat. Watering can also typically allow a garden and/or a lawn. Additionally, a domestic well does not allow for unlimited water use. The well permit that is received when the well is drilled will provide information about, the well test report, the depth of the well and the pumping rate of the well. Moreover, make sure you understand what you have or what you are getting and what you can legally do with that water.
How do you find out what type of well a property has that you might be interested purchasing? Request a copy of the well permit. Read this over. Look for the type of well in the well description. You also can call the Colorado Division of Water information desk. 303-866-3587. Leave the address of the property and you will usually receive a return call with on 24 hours.
How Do Water Rights Impact Your Property?
The right to use water is a right. Even rain water collected in buckets and barres are not necessarily available for the landowner use. In Colorado unless a property owner has specific legal rights to use rain water they are compelled to leave water where it is.
Water is precious in the west. Know what you are getting when you are purchasing a property or drilling a well. Do your due diligence. Make sure that you can use the water the way that you would like. That is how water rights impact your property. If you have specific questions we can help. Contact us today.