Summer 2024
FACT SHEET
Where Your Water Comes From
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The water in your home doesn’t magically come from the tap. It may have traveled hundreds of miles, from melting snowpack to a high mountain reservoir, down a river, through tunnels, treatment plants, and pipes. It may have moved through someone else’s home or was used to irrigate a field before being treated and making its way to your house. Or it may have been pumped from 2,500 feet below the earth’s surface. Where you live in Colorado determines where your water comes from.
9 River basins exist within the state: The Arkansas, Colorado, Gunnison, North Platte, Republican, Rio Grande, South Platte, Dolores/San Juan/San Miguel, and the Yampa/ White/Green
This map shows typical annual high and low streamflows during wet years and dry years, measured in acre-feet at gauges along Colorado’s major rivers and tributaries. This map was originally published in the Colorado Water Plan in 2015.
4 Major interstate river basins originate in Colorado, making it a headwaters state: The Arkansas, Colorado, Platte and Rio Grande
MAP COURTESY OF COLORADO WATER CONSERVATION BOARD
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85 %
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40%
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85%
Of Colorado’s precipitation falls on the West Slope—most comes in the form of snow
Of the water that originates in Colorado is used within the state, 60% leaves the state
Of precipitation that falls in Colorado is used by the natural environment
85 +
2,000
The statewide average annual precipitation, in inches, which includes a range of an average of 7 in/yr to more than 50 in/yr in some mountain locations
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Of Colorado’s population lives east of the Continental Divide
Reservoirs in Colorado with a total capacity of about 7.5 million acre-feet
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For additional information and resources, read the Citizen’s Guide to Where Your Water Comes From.