Pitkin County's rivers feed both sides of the Continental Divide

Water is a bigger story in Pitkin County than a tap in the kitchen. The Roaring Fork River and its tributary the Fryingpan rise in the high country here, and that water is spoken for in ways that reach far beyond the valley.

Colorado divides water administration into regions. Pitkin County’s rivers sit in Water Division 5, the division built around the mainstem of the Colorado River. The state’s Division of Water Resources administers water rights there, deciding who gets to use water and in what order, under Colorado’s “first in time, first in right” system.

Part of what makes this valley notable is that some of its water does not stay on this side of the mountains. Through tunnels under the Continental Divide, water from the Fryingpan and Roaring Fork headwaters is moved east to cities and farms on the other side of the Divide. The best-known of these systems is the federal Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, which carries water to the Arkansas River basin. These transmountain diversions are a permanent feature of how Colorado shares a scarce resource between its wetter west and drier east.

For a property owner, the lesson is the same one that holds across Colorado: having a river nearby, or a ditch, or a well, does not mean unlimited water. Rights are specific, and they are administered by the state, not by the parcel.

To understand water rights and administration in this valley, start with the Division of Water Resources, Division 5 office, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s information on how water moves between basins.