known Data Issues and Limitations

Note: this page is being reviewed and updated over time. 

The following are known issues for the May 1, 2023 release. This document is being updated over time and does not necessarily cover all the known issues yet. Please report any issues you may encounter to the WaDE team through direct email or preferably using the Feedback button on the left side of the footer. 

 Interface Issues

  • The mapping interface uses Mapbox Tiling Service, which renders or displays water rights points of diversions and places of use geospatial data into tile sets up to 20 layers. The more the user zooms in, the more data will display, which can be overwhelming. We suggest the user uses the filters to narrow down the search for a smaller subset of water rights. For example, use the Water Source Type filter to only search for surface or groundwater rights. Use the Beneficial Use filter to select a subset of uses.
  • In very narrow query criteria, where only hundreds or dozens of water rights exist across the Western States, Mapbox will likely not display points or polygons on the map until the user zooms in.  We suggest the user clicks on the Analytics & Table tab, which will query the database for the selected filter criteria. The Data Table will list all the water rights, and the user can visit each right’s landing page and see where they are across the West.
  • The data download size is limited to 100,000 water rights at-a-time for software efficiency reasons. Please adjust your filters to reduce the dataset size to less than this limit and try the download again. If not, don’t hesitate to contact the WaDE Team for a larger dataset request.

General Data Issues

1. Why does Wyoming appear not to have as many water rights?

The water rights dataset in WestDAAT for Wyoming is incomplete. It just represents groundwater wells with greater than 500 gallons per minute (GPM) permitted capacity and which do not have stock watering or coalbed methane as their only beneficial use. Once available in a machine-readable format, a future WestDAAT update will include the rest of Wyoming’s water rights 

2. Why does New Mexico not have priority dates?

The water rights dataset in WestDAAT for New Mexico is incomplete. The dataset does not have priority dates or permitted flow or volume. Once available in a machine-readable format, a future WestDAAT update will include the rest of New Mexico’s water rights. The provided hyperlink to the State Water Right Webpage within each water right landing page may allow users to find the priority date or permitted amount from the New Mexico Office of State Engineer website.

3. Why does Texas not have permitted amounts or priority dates?

The water rights dataset in WestDAAT for Texas is incomplete. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is working on reviewing its data through an elaborate Quality assurance (QA)/quality control (QC) process. The provided hyperlink to the State Water Right Webpage within each water right landing page may allow the user to find the priority date or permitted amount from the TCEQ website. Once available in a machine-readable format, a future WestDAAT update will include the rest of Texas water rights.

4. Why does California not have all its water rights?

The water rights dataset in WestDAAT for California is incomplete. We are using a relatively newly shared dataset by the California State Water Resources Control Board. We are coordinating with staff at the Board to resolve some of the metadata issues. Once these issues are resolved, a future WestDAAT update will include the rest of California’s water rights.

5. Why California, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, and Washington do not have owner names for their water rights?

These state datasets did not have the water rights owner name in a machine-readable format. Once available, we will include the owner’s name in future WestDAAT updates. In some cases, owner information may not be publicly available due to privacy laws.

6. Why does the four-corners area not have water rights data?

WaDE and WestDAAT share Western States water data. WaDE does not share data directly from Native Americans or Tribal Nations. In many cases, states share water rights information for the tribes, especially if the rights are adjudicated and finalized. 

7. Why does Alasak not have water rights in WestDAAT?

The WaDE team is working with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to map their data into WestDAAT. The current publicly available dataset for Alasak’s water rights requires additional metadata before it can be imported into WaDE. Once these metadata are available in a machine-readable format, a future WestDAAT update will include Alaska’s water rights data.

8. Why do California, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas not have Place of Use (PoU) datasets?

Currently, none of these states have PoU datasets available in a digitized machine-readable format that can be related to water rights data. Once any PoU dataset is available, a future WestDAAT update will include it.