Your water is worth money every year you keep it.
What do you hold?
Every rate on this site is sourced from public agencies and indices
Public data sources we cite. No affiliation implied.
What just changed for water owners
Dated, sourced briefs on the rulings, shortages, and payment programs that move what your water is worth.
Edwards Aquifer enters September within three feet of a Stage 3 trigger
On September 1 the EAA’s J-17 index well read 643.6 feet with a ten-day average of 642.9. The Stage 3 trigger, a 35 percent permit reduction, is a ten-day average below 640 feet. The San Antonio Pool is in Stage 2; the Uvalde Pool has no restrictions.
Metropolitan briefs its board: stored Colorado River water gets harder to withdraw once Lake Mead nears 1,025 feet
Metropolitan Water District staff walked through the new guidelines: California falls from 4.4 to 3.96 million acre feet, ICS creation is capped at 400,000 acre feet a year, and between elevations 1,025 and 1,000 feet delivery of stored water becomes subject to consultation and can be reduced or denied.
Elephant Butte drops to 1.4 percent of capacity, lowest since 1971
Elephant Butte Reservoir held 27,461 acre feet on August 27, 2026, about 1.4 percent of its 1,960,900 acre foot conservation capacity, against 74,254 acre feet a year earlier.
The same acre foot of water can earn $33 or $15,000. The difference is who rents it.
A state bank pays a posted floor. A neighboring farm pays the going rate. A city pays for reliability, a developer pays for permission to build, and an oilfield operator pays by the barrel. Every one of those buyers might want YOUR water, and most owners only ever hear from one of them.
WaterLeases exists to show owners the whole demand map before they sign anything. Sourced rates, state by state law, and a valuation that brackets what your water should earn at each door.
The western water market, on a log scale
Rents cluster in the tens and hundreds of dollars per acre foot. Sales and oilfield demand live one to two orders of magnitude higher. Where your water lands on this chart depends on seniority, basin, and which buyer can legally reach it.
Every figure and its sourceWhat water rents for · per AF per year
What water sells for · spot and outright
Unused water is not neutral. It is unpaid and exposed.
Use-it-or-lose-it doctrines can erode idle rights, and every idle season is income foregone. The loop keeps the right legally alive, earning, and repriced as your basin's demand grows.
Confirm
State records show what you actually hold: quantity, priority date, and any exposure from past non-use.
Value
Sourced comparables and basin demand bracket what the water should earn, before any counterparty anchors you.
Lease
Bank, term lease, dry-year option, or per-barrel supply: the structure that fits the buyer who pays most.
Reprice
Terms end, markets move, demand arrives. Every renewal is a chance to reprice what you kept.
One asset. Three structures. Very different money.
Nearly every water lease in the West is one of these three shapes. The structure you pick, and who sits on the other side of it, moves the rate more than anything else you control.
Seasonal & Term Leases
Rent the use of your water for a season or a fixed term at a rate per acre foot. Title and priority stay with you, and the use returns automatically when the term ends.
- You keep title and priority
- Rate per acre foot per year
- Reprice at every renewal
Dry-Year Options
A city or utility pays annual standby income for the option to take your water only in declared shortage years. You keep farming in normal years and collect a premium when the option is called.
- Standby payment every year
- Water called only in shortage
- The premium municipal structure
Bank & Trust Deposits
Deposit the right into a state bank, trust, or instream program. The program administers rentals at posted rates, and the right is protected from forfeiture the whole time.
- Posted or program rates
- Statutory forfeiture protection
- Simplest paperwork in water
A water lease is a process, not a handshake.
The owners who get hurt in water deals skip steps: they price off the neighborly rate, let the counterparty run the paperwork, or lease without state approval and put the right itself at risk. The full path has four stages, and every one of them protects your money or your right.
We run the first two stages for you at no cost, the records check and the valuation, so you enter stage three knowing exactly what you hold and what it should earn.
- Confirm the rightDecree, permit, or certificate pulled from state records. Priority date and quantity confirmed.Wk 1
- Value the waterComparable trades, program rates, and demand in your basin. You see the range before anyone calls you.Wk 1-2
- Match to demandMunicipal, agricultural, industrial, or environmental lessees, or a state bank. The use determines the price.Wk 2-4
- Approve and paper itState approval where required (change application, bank filing, or watermaster consent), then a signed lease.Varies
From "what do I even have?" to a priced asset
Most owners negotiate water deals exactly once in their lives, against counterparties who do it every week. The valuation levels that field before the first phone call.
- 01Day 0
Tell us what you hold
A short intake: the right, shares, or land, and the state it sits in. No documents required to start.
- 02Days 1-3
Records check + valuation
We confirm the right in state records and bracket its value against sourced comparables and basin demand.
- 03Same week
See your options
The demand map for your water: bank rates, lease structures, and the premium counterparties worth approaching.
- 04Your call
Move when ready
We connect you with the vetted broker, program, or counterparty that fits, or you take the numbers and act on your own.
Water leasing is state law. Start with yours.
Every state runs a different door: banks, trusts, watermasters, State Engineers. Each state page covers the legal path, the real programs, the administering agency, and what the market looks like there.
The 17 prior appropriation and hybrid states. Select yours.
Read before you sign anything
Sourced, owner-side guides to the questions that decide what your water earns. Every figure traces to a public agency, index, or official notice.
Can You Lease Water Rights?
Yes, water rights can be leased in all 17 western states. How leasing works, who approves it, what it pays, and how leasing protects your right from forfeiture.
How Much Are Water Rights Worth?
What water rights are worth in 2026: the five value factors (seniority, reliability, location, use, transferability) and the three appraisal methods, with sourced comps.
How to Find Out If You Own Water Rights
A step-by-step method to find your water rights in state records: which agency to search, what documents prove ownership, and how to read what you find.
Frac Pond & Oilfield Water Leasing
How landowners lease water to oil and gas operators: per-barrel pricing ($1 to $2+ in the Permian), frac pond leases, take-or-pay minimums, and the clauses that protect you.
Inherited Water Rights
What to do when you inherit water rights: confirming what the estate holds, forfeiture risk from non-use, splitting rights among heirs, and how to value them.
Water Right Forfeiture by State
How many years of non-use forfeits a water right in each of the 17 western states, with statute citations, the programs that stop the clock, and the official database to look up your right.
Frequently asked questions
Can you lease water rights?
Yes, in every western state. A lease transfers the use of the water for a defined term while you keep ownership, title, and the priority date. State channels include water banks (Idaho), trust leases (Washington), instream leases (Oregon), and State Engineer approvals across the interior West. An approved lease also counts as beneficial use, which protects the right from forfeiture.
What is WaterLeases?
WaterLeases is the independent guide to leasing water in the American West: state by state rules, market rates sourced from public agencies and indices, and a confidential valuation desk. We are not a brokerage; when a deal makes sense, we connect you with vetted professionals and programs that fit your water.
What do water leases pay?
Sourced anchors across the market: the Idaho Water Supply Bank posts $33 per acre foot per year for irrigation rentals, Colorado Front Range leases pay about $200 per acre foot per year, California spot water was $535.91 per acre foot on the NQH2O index on August 26, 2026, and Permian frac water has sold for $1 to $2+ per barrel, roughly $7,800 to $15,500 per acre foot.
Does a valuation cost anything?
No. The records check and valuation range are complimentary and confidential. If you move forward with a broker, program, or counterparty we introduce, they compensate us; the valuation itself carries no obligation.
How do I get started?
Tell us what you hold through the short form. A WaterLeases analyst replies within one business day with a valuation range and the clearest path for your water.
Find out what your water is worth before anyone else tells you.
Tell us what you hold. We bracket its value against sourced comparables and real demand in your basin, then point you at the strongest path: lease, bank, or sell. Confidential, and yours to act on however you like.
- A defensible range, anchored to sourced comparables
- The demand map for your basin: who would pay and why
- Reply within one business day, confidential throughout