Colorado water rights question

Gabi Rivera wrote:We are moving back to Colorado Springs and want to buy a small acreage (5 acres) in the Falcon/Peyton area. We will need to have a well dug. However, I heard that having a household well does not allow for irrigation. Is there anybody familiar with this issue? How do you establish a garden and food forest under the local restrictions?

Dan Kline wrote:My cousin ranches NW Colorado. He is so upset about water laws that he made this post on his Facebook page a while back.
"When it rains, if I open my mouth in the downpour and swallow, that rain is mine. If I use a cup to catch it I have broken the law!" He cannot put in any kind of water diversion or containment, make contours in the field or put up snow fences to catch water.

Dan Kline wrote:
The absurdity is that powers that be have concluded that the people in California need Western Colorado water more than the people there. One high country rancher I talked to said his grandfather and father had always diverted the stream that ran through his land to grow alfalfa. When the grandson did this he was sued and fined by the water authorities. He has had to cut his 1200 head of cattle to 500 because now he cannot grow hay to feed through the winter.

The Division of Water Resources has several types of well permit application forms to assist you in obtaining a permit to construct a new or replacement well. Using the correct form will greatly assist you in obtaining the documentation you require to proceed with the construction or replacement of a well in a timely fashion.

For additional information, read the Guide to Well Permits, Water Rights, and Water Administration.

First, it is important to know if you are located within one of the following: The Denver Basin, The Denver Basin AND a Designated Ground Water Basin, or A Designated Ground Water Basin .

For residential uses there are generally three types of use, depending on your particular needs and physical land situation.
Form GWS-44 may be used for all these types of residential uses.

The three types of use are:

General Residential With Lawn/Garden Irrigation and Domestic Animal Watering
Livestock Watering Only
Residential Household Use Only

For more information, please see the General Residential or Household Use page. All residential real estate transactions that include a well transfer require a Change of Owner Name/Address form to be completed and existing wells must be registered.

For all other situations and types of uses the forms to use are:

Commercial Wells - Click here to determine correct forms
Dewatering Well
Dewatering System
Gravel Pits
Irrigation, Municipal, Industrial, and Other Large Capacity Wells
Monitoring and Observation Hole (temporary)
Monitoring and Observation Well (permanent)
Recovery/Remediation Well
Registration of an Existing Well (construction prior to 1972)

Gabi Rivera wrote:Dean, I really love the area and will find a way. Sometimes I wonder if I should buy a house in town with municipal water supply and try to grow intensively on a small piece of land. It would be more expensive but at least there is water. I could always do rainwater harvesting illegally as the primary source of irrigation. It would also save the cost of drilling a well and septic.

May I ask if you did rain barrels or simply redirected the flow to be stored in the soil?

Danielle Venegas wrote:
I don't think municipal water is the answer either. They will often put water restrictions up in times of drought. We have had years and years where you are allowed to water only on certain days at certain times, anything else is fined. CO is even stricter about water than Wyoming.