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Leasing water rights
Leasing lets water change hands for a season or a decade without changing hands permanently. For an owner it produces income while keeping the asset; for a user it supplies water without the capital cost of buying.
The catch is the same one that governs sales: if the lessee will use the water differently or somewhere else, the lease alone is not enough — that use still needs water court approval or an administrative approval, because the priority system does not care who signed what. C.R.S. § 37-92-305(3)(a)
Where water is offered for lease in Colorado
Colorado has no statewide lease exchange that this site could find. Water for lease is offered through a few public programs, each with its own eligibility rules and calendar, and through private deals between owners and users. The public channels below were checked on each operator's own page in October 2026. Programs change from year to year, so read the current page before you plan a season around one.
| Channel | How it works |
|---|---|
| Northern Water rental list | Northern Water posts a public list of Colorado-Big Thompson (C-BT) rental offers and requests, with each party's own contact details, so renters and owners deal with each other. Northern Water · verified Oct. 2026 |
| Northern Water Regional Pool | Unused C-BT water offered by sealed bid, for uses Northern Water allows inside its boundaries. Northern Water did not allocate Regional Pool water in 2026; the most recent allocation was in May 2025. Northern Water · verified Oct. 2026 |
| City raw-water rentals | Some cities rent water they own but do not need that year. Boulder offers surplus water to qualified applicants for a single year in average and above-average supply years Boulder · verified Oct. 2026. In 2026 Fort Collins allocated its Water Supply and Storage Company shares for rent by random draw Fort Collins · verified Oct. 2026. Greeley runs agricultural and non-agricultural rental programs of up to one year, with availability set each April Greeley · verified Oct. 2026. |
| State Land Board | The Colorado State Land Board leases state-owned water for use on private land, through a ditch water leasing application. State Land Board · verified Oct. 2026 |
| Conservancy district allocations | Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District allocates Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water each spring to eligible entities inside the district. It is an allocation, not an open market, and there is no 2026 allocation. SECWCD · verified Oct. 2026 |
Other leases are private: owners and ditch shareholders renting to neighbors, subject to the decree and any company bylaws. This site found no public listing service for them. A water attorney in your division or the ditch company itself is a reasonable place to ask.
If you are the owner, the Colorado Water Conservation Board takes voluntary proposals at any time to lease, loan, sell or donate water for instream flow use CWCB · verified Oct. 2026. Colorado law also authorizes water banks C.R.S. art. 37-80.5, but this site found no bank operating today, so treat an offer described as a water bank with care.
Vetting a lease offer
- Decree and priority. Get the case number or WDID and look the right up yourself: decreed use, amount, administration number, and whether the amount is absolute or conditional.
- Change-case status. If your use, place or structure differs from the decree, ask whether a change decree or substitute water supply plan already covers it, and who obtains one if not.
- Ditch company consent. For shares, get the company's written confirmation that it allows the rental and will deliver to you.
- Delivery point. Where the water is physically delivered, how it reaches your headgate or pond, and who bears the losses on the way.
- Term. The seasons covered, any renewal right, and what happens if an approval is refused.
- Call risk in dry years. Ask the division engineer's office how often the right has been out of priority, and settle in writing what you pay in a year when little or no water arrives.
Why owners lease instead of selling
Selling water off irrigated land is permanent and usually comes with dry-up covenants that prevent the ground being irrigated again. Leasing keeps the option open. It is the natural instrument when an owner wants income without retiring a farm, when a city needs supply in dry years but not every year, or when a buyer wants to test a supply before committing capital.
The abandonment question, answered by statute
The obvious worry is that letting someone else use your water — or not using it yourself — looks like giving it up. Colorado's abandonment definition turns on intent to permanently discontinue use C.R.S. § 37-92-103(2), and the legislature has expressly tolled several categories of non-use so conservation-minded owners are not punished:
Any period of nonuse of any portion of a water right shall be tolled, and no intent to discontinue permanent use shall be found for purposes of determining an abandonment of a water right for the duration that … the nonuse of a water right by its owner is a result of participation in: A water conservation program approved by a state agency, a water conservation district, or a water conservancy district; a water conservation program established through formal written action or ordinance by a municipality or its municipal water supplier; an approved land fallowing program as provided by law in order to conserve water; a water banking program as provided by law; a loan of water to the Colorado water conservation board for instream flow use under section 37-83-105 (2).
That list is the practical charter for Colorado water leasing. If your arrangement fits inside one of those programs, the non-use is protected. If it does not, you are relying on the general intent test — and should document your intent to resume, in writing, contemporaneously.
The forms leasing takes
| Arrangement | What it does |
|---|---|
| Seasonal lease | A user takes the water for one or more irrigation seasons within the existing decreed use. |
| Dry-year option | A city pays annually for the right to call on the water only in dry years. Income every year, disruption occasionally. |
| Rotational fallowing | Owners rotate which land goes unirrigated, defined by statute as a rotational crop management contract C.R.S. § 37-92-103(10.6). |
| Augmentation lease | Water leased annually into an augmentation plan as replacement supply. |
| Instream flow lease or loan | Water left in the channel through the Colorado Water Conservation Board. |
| Ditch share lease | Leasing the delivery from shares rather than the underlying right — subject to company bylaws. |
What still needs approval
A lease is a contract between two parties; the state administers water by priority regardless. So:
- If the lessee uses the water for the decreed use, at the decreed place, through the decreed structure, generally no new approval is needed. This is the simple case, and it is common between neighbors.
- If the use, place, time or point of diversion changes, that is a change of water right and needs a decree — even though nothing was sold.
- For temporary or interim arrangements, the State Engineer may approve a substitute water supply plan rather than requiring a full court case C.R.S. § 37-92-308. This is the usual route for short-term augmentation leasing.
- Rotational crop management contracts must seek water court approval to rotate the fallowed lands, and must not cause injurious effect C.R.S. § 37-92-103(10.6).
Terms worth getting right
- Exactly what is leased — decreed right or shares, and how much: a rate, a volume, or a share of what actually arrives.
- Who bears shortage risk when the right is out of priority. In a dry year this is the whole of the deal.
- Who obtains and pays for approvals, and what happens if they are refused.
- Measurement and accounting, and who reports to the division engineer.
- Ditch company consent, where shares are involved.
- Abandonment protection — recite which statutory program the arrangement fits, and keep the documentation.
The rest of buying and selling covers the market this sits inside.
Common questions
Where can I lease water in Colorado?
This site found no statewide lease exchange. Public channels include Northern Water's Colorado-Big Thompson rental list and its occasional Regional Pool, city raw-water rental programs such as those in Boulder, Fort Collins and Greeley, and State Land Board water leases. Other leases are private arrangements between owners, ditch shareholders and users. Programs change each year, so check the operator's current page.
Can you lease water rights in Colorado?
Yes. Leasing is common, from seasonal agricultural leases between neighbors to dry-year options held by municipalities and annual leases into augmentation plans. If the lessee uses the water for the decreed use at the decreed place, no new approval is generally required; any change in use, place, time or point of diversion needs water court approval or an administrative substitute water supply plan.
Does leasing my water rights risk abandonment?
Not if the arrangement fits a protected category. C.R.S. § 37-92-103(2)(b) tolls non-use during participation in an approved water conservation program, a land fallowing program, a water banking program, or a loan of water to the Colorado Water Conservation Board for instream flow use. Outside those categories the general intent test applies, so document your intent to resume use.
What is a dry-year option?
An arrangement where a municipal provider pays annually for the right to call on an owner's water only in years when it needs it. The owner keeps farming in normal years and receives income every year, while the city secures drought supply without buying the right outright.
What is rotational fallowing?
An arrangement in which owners of irrigation rights agree to stop irrigating a portion of their historically irrigated land and rotate which parcels go unirrigated. C.R.S. § 37-92-103(10.6) defines it as a rotational crop management contract, and it requires water court approval to rotate the lands and must not cause injurious effect.