Hydrohistorian
Roan Creek Basin on the ground — the ditches, wells, reservoirs and gages of Water District 70 · clicktap anything for its record
Browse this district’s ditches, gages, reservoirs, wells and springs as a list.
Full diagnostic snapshot pending — this district's weekly-style report (system status, active calls, hydrographs, anomaly flags) is produced by the nightly rotation and appears here after its first run. The tabs above are live now.
Schematic
Historical
Evolution of the network
Trends
This year, in context
In the weeks around 2026-07-06 (the newest reading on file), flows at the 1 ranked gage are running at a median 26% of their own long-term norm for this window — 1 below a typical year, 0 at or above. Driest relative to its record: ROAN CREEK AT DE BEQUE, CO., ranking 2nd lowest of 6 years.
How this comparison is made
Each gage's mean flow over the 3 days either side of 2026-07-06, compared with the same window in every year of its own record — so a gage is only ever measured against itself, and gages with no record in the window are counted out rather than guessed.
Gage flow trend & changepoints
What counts as a trend here
Computed 2026-08-30 20:26 from 2 gage(s) with cached period-of-record data. The series is each gage's annual mean flow in cfs (years with ≥300 days of record). Mann-Kendall (trend, with the Hamed–Rao correction for serial correlation — persistence can otherwise fake significance) and Pettitt (changepoint) both require at least 8 years spanning at least 10 years of record. A gage below that reports no signal — which is not the same as “no change.” The %-per-decade figure is the same Sen slope divided by the gage's median annual flow, for comparing across streams of very different size; it is omitted for near-ephemeral channels where the median is too small to divide by honestly.
None of the 2 gages with enough record shows a significant trend or a detected shift — which is itself the finding.
No gage shows a statistically significant trend or changepoint yet.
2 other gage(s) show no significant trend or changepoint (not shown).
How the measurement network itself changed
This basin was not always measured the way it is today — the API-era record is dense and recent, the early record sparse. 2 gage(s) and 35 structure(s) report in 2026, but structure reporting only reached half its modern level around ~1972. Every historical claim below is checked against this: long-term shifts that co-move with the growth of the network carry an explicit measurement-evolution caution, and abandonment screens whose idleness begins before the modern reporting era are flagged †.
| Decade | Gages with data (median yr) | Structures reporting (median yr) |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 0 | 49 |
| 1980s | 0 | 50 |
| 1990s | 0 | 50 |
| 2000s | 0 | 36 |
| 2010s | 0 | 34 |
| 2020s | 1 | 26 |
Mass-balance (network closure) trend
Structure divrec-history backfill coverage as of the last check: 11% of 208 schematic-relevant structures. 0 year(s) clear the 30% coverage gate so far -- the trend activates automatically once qualifying years span a full decade. No action needed; the nightly backfill keeps extending the record.
Reach gain/loss shifts (–)
Mass-balance kinks computed for every summer month back to (0 reach-snapshots) — which reaches gain or lose water, and how that has shifted across decades. Each shift is cross-checked against the observation record above: as more diversions became metered, "unaccounted" water shrinks mechanically, which can masquerade as a hydrologic shift.
No reach shows a statistically significant long-term gain/loss shift.
Groundwater now has its own tab: 30 monitored well(s), water-table trends, stream corridors, and the advisory depletion screen.
Reservoirs now has its own tab: 15 reservoir(s), end-of-year storage back to 1984, click-to-chart histories.
Cross-gage pattern fingerprint
Not enough gages with a long enough common-coverage window yet to fingerprint shared patterns.
Data provenance & quality
Where these numbers come from and how far they can be trusted. Grade C (3/6 points) — the components below are the finding; the letter alone is not. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (imported 2026-08-19) for history, plus the CDSS REST API for current conditions.
| Check | State | What was measured |
|---|---|---|
| gage freshness | stale | newest gage reading is 55 day(s) old (target 7) |
| diversion record | expected-lag | newest diversion record is 304 day(s) old (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears) |
| structure coverage | sparse | 11% of schematic structures have data |
Independent check: PASS — 100.0000% agreement across 132,088 stored values re-checked against DWR's authoritative record (HydroBase_CO_20260707), over 20 structures. 0 disagreement(s) beyond a 0.01 cfs tolerance. Checked 2026-08-19; a rotating sample covers the whole basin across successive runs, and the structures this report cites are checked every time.
Federal cross-check: WARN — 88.39% day-level agreement with USGS's own published records for the same gages, across 2 co-listed station(s) and 4,785 overlapping days (within max(2%, 0.5 cfs) daily). Pre-1950 records at some gages carry known between-agency day-stamp and transcription differences — scored at each year's best ±1-day alignment; residual disagreement is real historical divergence, flagged for review.
2 gage(s) / 4,751 daily values (1995-10-01–2026-07-06); 103 structure(s) with diversion records; 519 with decreed rights. Methodology has not yet had independent expert review — treat every figure as an advisory screen, not an administrative or legal conclusion.
Groundwater
112 water-level measurements across 30 monitored well(s) — 24 alluvial, 1 bedrock — plus 5 administered well(s) reporting metered pumping.
What is being counted
Observation wells and pumping wells are different populations and are never conflated: water levels come from monitored observation wells, and metered pumping comes from administered wells reporting through diversion records. Click any well to chart its own record.
Well map
3D aquifer x-ray
Every aquifer unit as its own head surface, animated through time.
How the surfaces are built, and what they are not
Alluvial water table on top, Denver Basin members (Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, Laramie–Fox Hills) stacked beneath where measured, interpolated from measured water levels. Units are never mixed; a surface exists only inside its own unit's well coverage, with no extrapolation; thin epochs are suppressed and say why. Vertical scale is exaggerated for readability and z is head elevation in feet. These are measured heads, not a calibrated groundwater model.
Water-table trends
Of 1 well(s) with enough record for a trend test: 0 declining, 0 rising.
Wells labeled by administrative world before anything else is said about them: tributary alluvium participates in the priority system; designated-basin and Denver Basin bedrock aquifers are governed differently and are excluded from stream-connection reasoning. Read bedrock declines differently too: deep bedrock aquifers recharge negligibly on human timescales, so a falling bedrock level is storage mining — effectively permanent — not a drought response that a wet year undoes. All screens advisory.
Reservoirs
15 reservoir(s) with 140 storage measurement(s), 1984–2026. Basin storage as of 2025-10-01 (the record's own end — reservoir records publish ~annually): 9 AF across 1 reservoir(s).
Why storage matters to the flow network
Storage change is real water the mass balance must credit — a losing reach beside a filling reservoir isn't losing water, it's banking it.
Reservoir map — how full is each vessel?
What “full” is measured against
Bubble size is proportional to a reservoir's record-high storage. Fill is its last recorded storage as a share of its surveyed capacity (USACE National Inventory of Dams) where a confident NID match exists — the tooltip names the matched dam — and as a share of its own record high otherwise. A wrong capacity would be worse than an honest record high, so only confident joins upgrade.
A dashed teal ring marks reservoirs reporting live DWR telemetry: their fill reflects yesterday's storage, is drawn as a dotted tail on charts, and is treated as provisional until the next verified HydroBase snapshot supersedes it.
A dashed red ring marks a dam under an active storage restriction from DWR's Dam Safety branch — the State Engineer has limited how much it may legally store, so a low fill can be an order, not a drought. Hazard class and inspection condition come from the same record, joined only where the dam carries this reservoir's WDID or a confident NID match — a wrong dam's restriction would be worse than none shown.
Basin storage, end of each water year
End-of-water-year totals; per-year reservoir counts shown because reporting coverage varies -- a total is only comparable to years with similar counts.
Largest reservoirs on record
Click a row to chart its full storage history, or open its dossier for rights, documents and dam-safety facts.
| Reservoir | Last recorded storage (AF) | As of | Full | Dam (DWR Dam Safety) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ▸ FURR POND NOS 1-19 (7003639) | 69 | 2001-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ CNR POND NO 6 (7003508) | 32 | 2017-10-03 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ CNR POND NO 5 (7003507) | 27 | 2017-10-03 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ CHEVRON FRESH WATER POND (7003523) | 9 | 2025-10-01 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ CNR POND NO 9 (7003511) | 4 | 2017-10-03 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ BOLDT RESERVOIR (7003589) | 3 | 2002-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ CNR POND NO 10 (7003512) | 1 | 2017-10-03 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ TROUGH SPRINGS RESERVOIR (7003604) | 0 | 1993-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
Legal
Decreed rights on this network run from 1883-07-01 to 2024-01-29. Of the 20 structures with a yield estimate, the median one’s senior right was in priority 100% of a median irrigation season and 2% in a dry one. 25 abandonment screens and 57 compliance flags are listed below as leads for review — a screen is not an abandonment and a flag is not a violation.
Rights on file: 843 across 519 structure(s); 40 structure(s) carry 0 court-case references. Advisory reading aids on public DWR data — not administrative or legal conclusions.
Is the river getting harder to divert from?
Over 1988–2025, administration on this district has been tightening: 3 of 3 measures (days under call, calls set, seniority of the controlling call) are moving toward more administration, none the other way.
The three measures, year by year
One row per whole calendar year inside the call record's coverage (38 years); partly-covered years are omitted rather than reported as quiet. Trend is Mann-Kendall with the same significance gate as every other trend on this site. Counted from DWR's published call record, which begins in the early 2000s: earlier years are absent, not quiet. A rise in the number of calls set can also reflect how finely an administrator records one episode, which is why days under call -- insensitive to that -- is the component to read first. Advisory summary of the public record, not an administrative finding.
| Year | Days under call | Calls set | Controlling priority (median) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 365 | 184 | 1884-04-07 |
| 2015 | 365 | 256 | 1885-07-28 |
| 2016 | 366 | 237 | 1884-04-26 |
| 2017 | 365 | 330 | 1884-05-01 |
| 2018 | 365 | 290 | 1884-03-02 |
| 2019 | 365 | 165 | 1886-08-09 |
| 2020 | 366 | 221 | 1883-03-30 |
| 2021 | 365 | 218 | 1883-03-15 |
| 2022 | 365 | 201 | 1885-06-01 |
| 2023 | 365 | 120 | 1885-07-28 |
| 2024 | 366 | 164 | 1886-08-09 |
| 2025 | 365 | 232 | 1885-06-16 |
Why diversions stopped — call-based explanations
Sustained diversion stops matched to senior administrative calls.
- DE LA MATYR & ANDERSON D (7000534) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-01 (85+ days) — call at NEEDHAM DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- CLEAR CREEK DITCH (7000521) DWR↗ stopped 2025-06-29 (87+ days) — call at NEEDHAM DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- H V C AND S DITCH (7000550) DWR↗ stopped 2025-06-29 (87+ days) — call at NEEDHAM DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- AQUA DITCH (7000502) DWR↗ stopped 2025-06-18 (11+ days) — call at EAST DIVIDE CREEK DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- CARLISLE DITCH (7000514) DWR↗ stopped 2025-05-28 (33+ days) — call at HOMESTAKE DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- HIMEBAUGH DITCH (7000551) DWR↗ stopped 2025-05-21 (39+ days) — call at HOMESTAKE DITCH curtailing 62% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
- CARLISLE DITCH (7000514) DWR↗ stopped 2025-05-07 (7+ days) — call at CHATFIELD BARTHOLOMEW D curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- BAKER AND BOWDISH DITCH (7000505) DWR↗ stopped 2025-04-30 (28+ days) — call at MOCKING BIRD DITCH curtailing 77% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
- HIMEBAUGH DITCH (7000551) DWR↗ stopped 2024-10-31 (167+ days) — call at PARK RESERVOIR curtailing 62% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
- CANNON DITCH (7000511) DWR↗ stopped 2024-10-29 (167+ days) — call at PARK RESERVOIR curtailing 57% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
- FLUME DITCH (7000538) DWR↗ stopped 2024-10-29 (190+ days) — call at PARK RESERVOIR curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- BUMGARDNER WW DITCH (7000507) DWR↗ stopped 2024-10-23 (196+ days) — call at GRAND VALLEY CANAL curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
Right yield — how often could these rights actually divert?
Share of irrigation-season days each structure's rights were not called out, derived from the 22-year district-scoped call record (senior right = floor, junior right = ceiling constraint). Call-record-derived; DWR's own analysis governs where available.
| Structure | Senior priority | Senior right: median / dry yr | Junior right: median / dry yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLEAR CREEK DITCH (7000521) DWR↗ | 1886-04-09 | 100.0% / 0.0% | 33.2% / 0.0% |
| RESERVOIR DITCH (7000580) DWR↗ | 1884-02-28 | 100.0% / 17.3% | 5.6% / 0.0% |
| CREEK AND NEWMAN DITCH (7000530) DWR↗ | 1884-11-15 | 100.0% / 2.8% | 33.2% / 0.0% |
| ROAN CREEK NO 2 DITCH (7000583) DWR↗ | 1884-09-10 | 100.0% / 2.8% | 5.6% / 0.0% |
| UPPER ROAN CREEK DITCH (7000596) DWR↗ | 1884-08-10 | 100.0% / 2.8% | 33.2% / 0.0% |
| BRIDGES-HAYES DITCH (7000642) DWR↗ | 1887-05-10 | 100.0% / 0.0% | 33.2% / 0.0% |
| KOBE CANAL (7000558) DWR↗ | 1936-06-30 | 9.8% / 0.0% | 9.8% / 0.0% |
| H V C AND S DITCH (7000550) DWR↗ | 1890-10-28 | 100.0% / 0.0% | 5.6% / 0.0% |
| CANNON DITCH (7000511) DWR↗ | 1885-06-03 | 100.0% / 1.9% | 33.2% / 0.0% |
| NEW HOBO DITCH (7000571) DWR↗ | 1908-06-06 | 33.2% / 0.0% | 33.2% / 0.0% |
| COTTONWOOD DITCH (7000529) DWR↗ | 1885-03-20 | 100.0% / 2.8% | 33.2% / 0.0% |
| CONWELL DITCH (7000527) DWR↗ | 1884-04-13 | 100.0% / 12.6% | 33.2% / 0.0% |
Abandonment radar (25 screens)
Absolute rights with 10+ years of no recorded diversions. Screens only — storage, alternate points, and plan operations can explain nonuse lawfully. And diversion REPORTING itself only reached its modern level ~1972 — idleness that begins before then may be unreported use, not nonuse (flagged † below).
- DEBEQUE WATER WORKS PIPELINE AND PUMP ST (7000531) DWR↗ (1936-06-30, 0.5 cfs decreed): last active 1980 — 45 years idle
- MASON DITCH (7000566) DWR↗ (1913-05-15, 6.7 cfs decreed): last active 1982 — 43 years idle
- SUGAR DITCH (7000595) DWR↗ (1898-02-12, 4.4 cfs decreed): last active 1983 — 42 years idle
- WILLIAMS DITCH (7000598) DWR↗ (1887-03-02, 2.0 cfs decreed): last active 1983 — 42 years idle
- CULLMAN WELL NO 1 (7005002) DWR↗ (1951-10-17, 1.1 cfs decreed): last active 1983 — 42 years idle
- CARR AND HIMEBAUGH DITCH (7000513) DWR↗ (1887-04-22, 8.9 cfs decreed): last active 1984 — 41 years idle
- H A NEWTON DITCH (7000548) DWR↗ (1907-05-15, 2.9 cfs decreed): last active 1988 — 37 years idle
- MEACHAM DITCH (7000567) DWR↗ (1885-06-01, 1.6 cfs decreed): last active 1998 — 27 years idle
- SHORT GULCH DITCH (7000590) DWR↗ (1899-11-01, 2.8 cfs decreed): last active 1998 — 27 years idle
- INTAKE DITCH (7000627) DWR↗ (1910-08-20, 1.3 cfs decreed): last active 1998 — 27 years idle
Compliance screens (57 advisory flags)
Screened 81 of 519 structures with rights (90 have diversion history on file). A flag is a lead for expert review — augmentation plans, exchanges, and free-river conditions can make over-decree diversions lawful and are deliberately not modeled.
- MEADOWS DITCH (7000568) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 20.3 cfs (max 22.6) exceeds total decreed absolute 3.5 cfs across 9645 recorded day(s).
- H V C AND S DITCH (7000550) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 20.0 cfs (max 23.9) exceeds total decreed absolute 12.3 cfs across 11276 recorded day(s).
- H SCOTT DITCH (7000549) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 19.0 cfs (max 25.1) exceeds total decreed absolute 6.7 cfs across 10342 recorded day(s).
- BAKER CANNON DITCH (7000506) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 18.6 cfs (max 20.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 0.5 cfs across 1748 recorded day(s).
- ROAN CREEK NO 3 DITCH (7000584) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 18.1 cfs (max 34.1) exceeds total decreed absolute 7.4 cfs across 18881 recorded day(s).
- ROAN CREEK NO 2 DITCH (7000583) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 16.8 cfs (max 17.2) exceeds total decreed absolute 14.4 cfs across 23284 recorded day(s).
- CARR AND HIMEBAUGH DITCH (7000513) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 15.3 cfs (max 15.3) exceeds total decreed absolute 8.9 cfs across 2168 recorded day(s).
- CANNON DITCH (7000511) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 13.3 cfs (max 17.4) exceeds total decreed absolute 11.7 cfs across 16144 recorded day(s).
- ALTENBERN DITCH (7000500) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 12.0 cfs (max 20.3) exceeds total decreed absolute 2.6 cfs across 10358 recorded day(s).
- HOAGLUND-FRASIER DITCH (7000555) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 11.9 cfs (max 11.9) exceeds total decreed absolute 0.7 cfs across 2196 recorded day(s).
Seniority (top structures by decreed rate)
| Structure | Senior priority date | Rights | Decreed abs (cfs) | Decreed abs (AF) | Conditional? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLEAR CREEK DITCH (7000521) DWR↗ | 1886-04-09 | 7 | 50.4 | 0 | — |
| RESERVOIR DITCH (7000580) DWR↗ | 1884-02-28 | 7 | 37.4 | 0 | — |
| CREEK AND NEWMAN DITCH (7000530) DWR↗ | 1884-11-15 | 4 | 33.0 | 0 | — |
| ROAN CREEK NO 2 DITCH (7000583) DWR↗ | 1884-09-10 | 5 | 14.4 | 0 | — |
| UPPER ROAN CREEK DITCH (7000596) DWR↗ | 1884-08-10 | 4 | 14.2 | 0 | — |
| BRIDGES-HAYES DITCH (7000642) DWR↗ | 1887-05-10 | 3 | 14.2 | 0 | — |
| KOBE CANAL (7000558) DWR↗ | 1936-06-30 | 1 | 14.0 | 0 | yes |
| H V C AND S DITCH (7000550) DWR↗ | 1890-10-28 | 5 | 12.3 | 0 | yes |
| CANNON DITCH (7000511) DWR↗ | 1885-06-03 | 3 | 11.7 | 0 | — |
| NEW HOBO DITCH (7000571) DWR↗ | 1908-06-06 | 2 | 11.6 | 0 | — |
| COTTONWOOD DITCH (7000529) DWR↗ | 1885-03-20 | 4 | 10.7 | 0 | — |
| CONWELL DITCH (7000527) DWR↗ | 1884-04-13 | 6 | 10.3 | 0 | — |
| CARR AND HIMEBAUGH DITCH (7000513) DWR↗ | 1887-04-22 | 2 | 8.9 | 0 | — |
| BAKER AND BOWDISH DITCH (7000505) DWR↗ | 1884-04-13 | 9 | 8.9 | 0 | — |
| AQUA DITCH (7000502) DWR↗ | 1884-08-10 | 5 | 7.6 | 0 | — |
No inventory or legal-document changes detected since the daily watch began.
Water-court filings this month (division-wide)
1 application in the 2026-08 resume for this basin's division — new rights, changes, augmentation plans — from the water clerk's statutory monthly notice (C.R.S. 37-92-302), the earliest public signal of a new claim. Filings are division-wide, not district-filtered: check the county column. Full resume PDF at the Judicial Branch →
Anyone affected may file a statement of opposition until 2026-10-31 (56 days left). C.R.S. 37-92-302(3): due by the last day of the second month following the filing month — computed, not legal advice; confirm with the water clerk.
All 1 filings, with excerpts
| Case | What it asks | County | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|---|
26CW3012
|
change of water right | RIO BLANCO | 26CW3012 Rio Blanco County. Application For Change of Water Right and Approval of Augmentation Plan. Applicant: Three Crown Ranch, LLC, Balcomb & Green, P.C., P.O. Drawer 790, Glenwood Springs, CO 81602, (970) 945-6546; balcombgreen.com. First Claim for Change… |
Call cascade
If a call were placed at a given seniority, which structures in this basin would be out of priority, and how much of their decreed rate would be curtailed? Computed from this basin's cached decrees.
What this does and doesn't model. Seniority arithmetic only: every right junior to the call is treated as curtailed. It does not model reach applicability — structures downstream of the calling point are not administered by it — and it applies no futile-call judgment. Read it as “who is junior to this date, and by how much,” not as a prediction of what the Division Engineer would actually order.
Pick a calling right
Real decrees from this basin, ordered by administration number — that is, by actual seniority. The years will look out of order, and that is correct: an administration number encodes the adjudication date as well as the appropriation date, so a right appropriated in 1970 can be administered ahead of one from 1950. A senior call curtails almost everything; a junior one curtails almost nothing.
Or enter an administration number directly
DWR administration numbers encode appropriation and adjudication dates; lower is more senior.
Topology cross-check: 3 parent disagreements, 2 sizable streams not on this network (vs DWR's route framework — under review)
This flow network was built mechanically; DWR's Source Water Route Framework disagrees with it in the places below. Each row is a question a human reviewer has not yet answered — not an error verdict. Checked 4 streams, 1 agree. Know this water? Tell us →
| Stream | This site routes it to | DWR routes it to |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado River | the mainstem | nan |
| Kimball Creek | the mainstem | Roan Creek |
| Conn Creek | the mainstem | Roan Creek |
Sizable streams DWR maps here that this network does not carry:
North Dry Fork (17 mi) · South Dry Fork (12 mi)