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San Juan River Basin

Division 7 · Water District 29 · As of 2026-10-06 05:07 MDT · 11 days ago

Who may take water from the San Juan River Basin, who is calling for it today, and how it is running, compiled from Colorado Division of Water Resources records. Click anything on the map for its record.

Live · machine-built

San Juan River Basin on the ground — the ditches, wells, reservoirs and gages of Water District 29 · clicktap anything for its record

Browse this district’s ditches, gages, reservoirs, wells and springs as a list.

73% of normal flow, week of 2026-09-21
1 call the record places on it, 2 unsettled

The San Juan River is below normal for late September -- 73% of normal flow. 1 call stands against it right now; the most senior right calling dates to 1891. DWR's statements do not settle whether 2 more calls reach it.

Water quality

The water itself, in this district

Four registers, each on its own schedule: what USGS sensors read right now, where samples have been taken, which stretches the state lists as impaired, and how the tap water of the systems here stands with EPA. None is a DWR record; each links its own page.

Right now

Source Provisional telemetry · fetched 2026-10-17 · verify at USGS current conditions ↗

1 USGS sensor reports temperature, conductance, dissolved oxygen or turbidity from inside this district; provisional readings, never merged into the verified record.

SiteTemp °CCond µS/cmDO mg/LTurb FNUAs of
SAN JUAN RIVER NEAR CO RD 119 AT PAGOSA SPRINGS CO ↗ 8.4 101 2026-10-16 23:30

Where water has been sampled

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-10-08 · verify at Water Quality Portal ↗

The portal lists 670 sampling stations in this district's watershed (Upper San Juan 14080101), of which 78 reported a sample in the last 5 years on the state and tribal side (USGS activity is in the station count, not in that figure). Most active: Southern Ute Tribe (37), Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment-WQCD (16), Mountain Studies Institute (MSI) (14). Most-sampled groups: Inorganics, Major, Metals, Physical, Nutrient, Organics, Other. Every station as a file ↗

Results themselves are not fetched here; USGS samples added after March 2024 may not be in the portal's legacy profiles yet.

Drinking water

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-10-07 · verify at EPA SDWIS ↗

3 community systems touch this district. None carries an open health-based violation on EPA's record. EPA sampled 1 of them for PFAS in 2023–25; none had PFOA or PFOS at or above the 2024 limit.

SystemServesEPA recordPFAS (UCMR 5)Lead, latest 90th pct
PAGOSA AREA WSD 11,069 clean, last 12 quarters none detected 0.0024 mg/L
SAN JUAN RIVER VILLAGE MD 877 clean, last 12 quarters not sampled 0.003 mg/L
ALPINE LAKES RANCH WC 158 clean, last 12 quarters not sampled 0.0012 mg/L

EPA's record carries violations and lead/copper percentiles; nitrate and disinfection by-product results are not in it. UCMR 5 samples are monitoring, not compliance, and the 2024 PFOA/PFOS limits equal its reporting limit, so any detection of those two is at or above them.

Impaired waters

Source Register of another agency · verify at EPA ATTAINS ↗

The state's 303(d) impaired-waters list has not been joined to this basin's own watershed boundary yet, so nothing is shown rather than a guess; the basins with a join carry the full list here. Why the join is geometry, not a name match.

Snowpack — 2 SNOTEL sites report here. Runoff outlook — Rio Blanco at Blanco Diversion : even odds of at least 4 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 23% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Runoff outlook — San Juan R nr Carracas : even odds of at least 25 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 19% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Full snow & runoff picture — charts, forecast history and how the forecasts have verified →

Sites, exceedance bands and sources
SNOTEL siteElev (ft)SWE (in)Median (in)% of medianTypical peak
Upper San Juan10140 0.00.0 — April 9 (29.7 in)
Wolf Creek Summit10930 1.10.1 — April 29 (35.5 in)

Rio Blanco at Blanco Diversion — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):

90%70%50%30%10%Normal
334711 18

San Juan R nr Carracas — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):

90%70%50%30%10%Normal
1319254062 131

Snow-water equivalent and medians (1991–2020) from NRCS SNOTEL; seasonal volume forecasts from the NRCS National Water and Climate Center. Sites and forecast points are assigned to the district whose boundary contains them — snowpack that feeds this district can also sit in a neighboring headwater district. Toggle the Snow chip on the map above to see the sites.

Topology cross-check: 3 parent disagreements, 5 sizable streams not on this network (vs DWR's route framework — under review)

This flow network was built mechanically; DWR's Source Water Route Framework disagrees with it in the places below. Each row is a question a human reviewer has not yet answered — not an error verdict. Checked 15 streams, 12 agree. Know this water? Tell us →

StreamThis site routes it toDWR routes it to
Rito Blanco the mainstem Rio Blanco
Sawmill Creek the mainstem Rito Blanco
Sheep Cabin Creek the mainstem Rito Blanco

Sizable streams DWR maps here that this network does not carry:

Squaw Canyon (6 mi) · Arroyo Escondido (5 mi) · Horse Gulch (5 mi) · Trail Canyon (4 mi) · Johnny Creek (3 mi)

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