Upper Yampa River

Division 6 · Water District 58

Auto-mapped

Upper Yampa River on the ground — the ditches, wells, reservoirs and gages of Water District 58 · clicktap anything for its record

Snowpack — no snow on the ground at 7 SNOTEL sites — normal for the date; the snow year begins in October and typically peaks around April 21. Runoff outlook — Yampa R ab Stagecoach Reservoir : even odds of at least 2 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 12% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Runoff outlook — Yampa R at Steamboat Springs: even odds of at least 22 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 20% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Runoff outlook — Elk R nr Milner: even odds of at least 40 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 25% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Full snow & runoff picture — charts, forecast history and how the forecasts have verified →

Sites, exceedance bands and sources

SNOTEL site	Elev (ft)	SWE (in)	% of median	Typical peak
Bear River	9100	0.0	—	April 21 (12.0 in)
Crosho	8960	0.0	—	April 5 (12.6 in)
Dry Lake	8240	0.0	—	April 4 (22.3 in)
Elk River	8710	0.1	—	April 5 (19.4 in)
Lost Dog	9350	0.0	—	April 10 (24.5 in)
Rabbit Ears	9390	0.0	—	April 21 (27.9 in)
Tower	10610	0.0	—	May 7 (49.0 in)

Yampa R ab Stagecoach Reservoir — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):

90%	70%	50%	30%	10%	Normal
1	1	2	3	4	15

Yampa R at Steamboat Springs — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):

90%	70%	50%	30%	10%	Normal
11	16	22	36	55	110

Elk R nr Milner — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):

90%	70%	50%	30%	10%	Normal
25	33	40	59	88	159

Snow-water equivalent and medians (1991–2020) from NRCS SNOTEL; seasonal volume forecasts from the NRCS National Water and Climate Center. Sites and forecast points are assigned to the district whose boundary contains them — snowpack that feeds this district can also sit in a neighboring headwater district. Toggle the Snow chip on the map above to see the sites.

Topology cross-check: 14 parent disagreements, 20 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 30 streams, 16 agree. Know this water? Tell us →

Stream	This site routes it to	DWR routes it to
Deep Creek	the mainstem	Willow Creek
Beaver Creek	the mainstem	Willow Creek
Willow Creek	the mainstem	Elk River
Deep Creek	the mainstem	Elk River
West Fork Elk River	the mainstem	nan
Cottonwood Gulch	the mainstem	Elk River
Trull Creek	the mainstem	Elk River
Salt Creek	the mainstem	Elk River

Sizable streams DWR maps here that this network does not carry:

Bear River (19 mi) · Sarvis Creek (19 mi) · Walton Creek (16 mi) · Watson Creek (13 mi) · Fish Creek (11 mi) · Lawson Creek (10 mi) · Green Creek (9 mi) · Harrison Creek (8 mi)

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.

Reconstruct conditions as of

Evolution of the network

This year, in context

In the weeks around 2026-07-06 (the newest reading on file), flows at the 31 ranked gages are running at a median 32% of their own long-term norm for this window — 27 below a typical year, 4 at or above. Driest relative to its record: HERNAGE & KOLBE DITCH, ranking 1st lowest of 3 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 21:10 from 55 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.

Of the 55 gages with enough record, 1 is trending down and 0 up, and 1 carries a detected shift. The clearest is Yampa River below Stagecoach Reservoir, its annual mean flow changing -3.47 cfs per decade (-4.9% of its median annual flow) over 60 years (p=0.0269). The other 54 show no clear signal either way.

What drought has cost here

Since 1998, federal crop insurance has paid $185,072 in drought-caused claims across Garfield, Grand, Routt counties — 1.8% of all insured crop losses there. The worst year was 2013 ($98,049).

USDA crop-insurance indemnities where the recorded cause of loss is drought, summed over the counties this district's gages sit in. Counties overlap water districts imperfectly, and insured-crop claims are a floor on drought damage, not a total. Source: USDA RMA cause-of-loss files.

Gage	Trend	Change / decade cfs · % of median annual flow	Significance	Years	Changepoint
▸ Yampa River below Stagecoach Reservoir YAMBSRCO	↓ decreasing	-3.47 cfs -4.9%	p=0.027	60	~1999

54 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. 33 gage(s) and 465 structure(s) report in 2026, but structure reporting only reached half its modern level around ~1941. 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)
1900s	2	1
1910s	4	0
1920s	2	0
1930s	2	82
1940s	3	259
1950s	4	264
1960s	6	295
1970s	6	314
1980s	12	357
1990s	12	394
2000s	11	439
2010s	14	441
2020s	15	429

Mass-balance (network closure) trend

Structure divrec-history backfill coverage as of the last check: 12% of 2942 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 (1950–2026)

Mass-balance kinks computed for every summer month back to 1950 (1408 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: 92 monitored well(s), water-table trends, stream corridors, and the advisory depletion screen.

Reservoirs now has its own tab: 277 reservoir(s), end-of-year storage back to 1901, click-to-chart histories.

Cross-gage pattern fingerprint

Over the 23-year window with full coverage (2004–2026), the dominant shared pattern across 3 gage(s) explains 85% of year-to-year variance (almost certainly a basin-wide climate/snowpack driver).

All gages in this window move with the shared pattern -- no localized outlier.

Structures most implicated by reconciliation (as of 2026-07-06)

Which structures' data absorbed the most correction when the current mass-balance snapshot was reconciled -- see the Historical tab for the full picture on any date.

LAKE CATAMOUNT INTAKE (diversion): -8.8 cfs (33% of that reach's correction)
WATER FEATURE DIVERSION (diversion): -8.8 cfs (33% of that reach's correction)
WATER FEATURE POND (diversion): -8.8 cfs (33% of that reach's correction)
LINDSEY DITCH (diversion): -3.8 cfs (14% of that reach's correction)
LANCASTER DITCH (diversion): -3.8 cfs (14% of that reach's correction)
BUCKINGHAM MANDALL DITCH (diversion): -3.8 cfs (14% of that reach's correction)
BAUMFALK DITCH 2 (diversion): -3.8 cfs (14% of that reach's correction)
LOG TUB SPRING (return): -3.8 cfs (14% of that reach's correction)
WASH TUB SPRING (return): -3.8 cfs (14% of that reach's correction)
BAUMFALK DITCH NO. 1 (diversion): -3.8 cfs (14% of that reach's correction)

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 305 day(s) old (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears)
structure coverage	sparse	12% of schematic structures have data

Independent check: PASS — 100.0000% agreement across 183,484 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: PASS — 99.26% day-level agreement with USGS's own published records for the same gages, across 25 co-listed station(s) and 210,656 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.

55 gage(s) / 272,311 daily values (1904-10-01–2026-07-06); 1020 structure(s) with diversion records; 3097 with decreed rights. Methodology has not yet had independent expert review — treat every figure as an advisory screen, not an administrative or legal conclusion.

157 water-level measurements across 92 monitored well(s) — 57 alluvial, 0 bedrock — plus 50 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 0 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.

277 reservoir(s) with 21,062 storage measurement(s), 1901–2026. Basin storage as of 2025-10-31 (the record's own end — reservoir records publish ~annually): 72,013 AF across 129 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)
▸ STAGECOACH RESERVOIR (5804213)	28,490	2025-10-31	—	—	dossier →
▸ STEAMBOAT LAKE (5803787)	22,274	2025-10-31	—	—	dossier →
▸ LAKE CATAMOUNT (5803631)	6,276	2025-10-01	—	—	dossier →
▸ LESTER CK RESERVOIR (5803521)	5,656	2025-10-31	—	—	dossier →
▸ YAMCOLO RESERVOIR (5804240)	3,235	2025-10-31	—	—	dossier →
▸ FISH CREEK RESERVOIR (5803508)	2,329	2025-10-31	—	—	dossier →
▸ HAHNS PEAK RES (5803512)	865	2025-10-31	—	—	dossier →
▸ STILLWATER NO. 1 RESERVOIR (5803540)	863	2025-10-31	—	—	dossier →

Snow-water equivalent, WY2026

No snow on the ground — normal for the date; the snow year begins in October. The chart shows the full water year just ending.

SNOTEL site	Elev (ft)	SWE (in)	% of median	Typical peak
Bear River	9100	0.0	—	April 21 (12.0 in)
Crosho	8960	0.0	—	April 5 (12.6 in)
Dry Lake	8240	0.0	—	April 4 (22.3 in)
Elk River	8710	0.1	—	April 5 (19.4 in)
Lost Dog	9350	0.0	—	April 10 (24.5 in)
Rabbit Ears	9390	0.0	—	April 21 (27.9 in)
Tower	10610	0.0	—	May 7 (49.0 in)

NRCS SNOTEL, daily. Sites are assigned to the district whose boundary contains them — the snow that feeds this district can also sit in a neighboring headwater district.

Two ways a snow year goes wrong (1979–2026)

A bad snow year here comes in two flavors (both called snow drought), and the river feels them differently. In 7 of the last 48 winters the snow never came — the pack peaked below 80% of its median. In 1 more, the snow came but left early — a near-normal peak melted out two weeks or more ahead of its usual date, sending the water down before the season needed it. This year was one of the dry ones: the pack peaked at 57% of median.

The snow never came: 1981, 1987, 1992, 2002, 2012, 2015, 2026. The snow left early: 2007.

Computed by this site from 7 SNOTEL sites’ full daily records (NRCS AWDB, back to 1979). Each year is measured against each site’s own multi-decade median — not the 1991–2020 normal the chart above uses — so the 1980s grade against a fair baseline. Peak and melt-out need 85% of the season’s days on the record; thin years are dropped, not guessed. Derived from snow measurements alone — it cannot tell dry-from-warm causes apart, only what the snowpack did.

Runoff outlook — Yampa R ab Stagecoach Reservoir

NRCS's final issue (2026-06-01) calls it even odds that at least 2 kAF arrives over 06-01 to 07-31 — 12% of a normal season; almost certainly at least 1, probably not more than 4. Our own record at this gage shows 0 kAF actually delivered (partial record: 36 of 61 days). New forecasts begin in January. How to read these numbers →

90% chance of at least	70% chance of at least	50% chance of at least	30% chance of at least	10% chance of at least	Normal	Observed
1	1	2	3	4	15	0

How good are these forecasts here? (1998–2025)

Grading every April issue against what the river then delivered, measured at this gage’s own record — 28 seasons: the median miss of the 50% forecast is 27%, with a high bias of 11%, and the observed volume landed inside the stated 10–90% band 75% of the time (a calibrated forecast would say 80%).

Computed by this site: NRCS's archived April issues (their period as issued each year) against the observed volume in DWR’s published record; years with under 90% daily coverage are dropped, not summed. A grade of the forecast, never of the forecasters — these are hard rivers. How this point ranks among every graded Colorado forecast point →

What April snow has meant for this river (1989–2025)

Across 36 measured years, the season’s water has loosely followed the April snowpack: a year opening April with 80% of median snow has typically gone on to deliver about 71% of a normal season (a snow-to-runoff elasticity of 1.7). In warm, early-melt years the river delivered a median of 66% of a normal season, against 112% in typical years — the timing of the melt matters, not just its size.

Computed by this site: the district’s April 1 SWE (% of each SNOTEL site’s own-record median) against the observed April–July volume at this gage (% of its median season) — a fixed window every year, unlike the forecast grades above, which use each issue’s own period. The slope is fit so single wild years can’t steer it (Theil–Sen, log space); years missing 10% of their days are dropped.

Runoff outlook — Yampa R at Steamboat Springs

NRCS's final issue (2026-06-01) calls it even odds that at least 22 kAF arrives over 06-01 to 07-31 — 20% of a normal season; almost certainly at least 11, probably not more than 55. Our own record at this gage shows 19 kAF actually delivered (partial record: 36 of 61 days). New forecasts begin in January. How to read these numbers →

90% chance of at least	70% chance of at least	50% chance of at least	30% chance of at least	10% chance of at least	Normal	Observed
11	16	22	36	55	110	19

How good are these forecasts here? (1950–2025)

Grading every April issue against what the river then delivered, measured at this gage’s own record — 75 seasons: the median miss of the 50% forecast is 15%, with a low bias of 0%, and the observed volume landed inside the stated 10–90% band 72% of the time (a calibrated forecast would say 80%).

What April snow has meant for this river (1979–2025)

Across 47 measured years, the season’s water has closely followed the April snowpack: a year opening April with 80% of median snow has typically gone on to deliver about 72% of a normal season (a snow-to-runoff elasticity of 1.2). In warm, early-melt years the river delivered a median of 65% of a normal season, against 107% in typical years — the timing of the melt matters, not just its size.

Runoff outlook — Elk R nr Milner

NRCS's final issue (2026-06-01) calls it even odds that at least 40 kAF arrives over 06-01 to 07-31 — 25% of a normal season; almost certainly at least 25, probably not more than 88. Our own record at this gage shows 45 kAF actually delivered (partial record: 36 of 61 days). New forecasts begin in January. How to read these numbers →

90% chance of at least	70% chance of at least	50% chance of at least	30% chance of at least	10% chance of at least	Normal	Observed
25	33	40	59	88	159	45

How good are these forecasts here? (1998–2025)

Grading every April issue against what the river then delivered, measured at this gage’s own record — 24 seasons: the median miss of the 50% forecast is 20%, with a low bias of 5%, and the observed volume landed inside the stated 10–90% band 83% of the time (a calibrated forecast would say 80%).

What April snow has meant for this river (1990–2025)

Across 32 measured years, the season’s water has closely followed the April snowpack: a year opening April with 80% of median snow has typically gone on to deliver about 71% of a normal season (a snow-to-runoff elasticity of 1.2). In warm, early-melt years the river delivered a median of 72% of a normal season, against 100% in typical years — the timing of the melt matters, not just its size.

Decreed rights on this network run from 1883-05-25 to 2024-09-30. Of the 20 structures with a yield estimate, the median one’s senior right was in priority 8% of a median irrigation season and 0% in a dry one. 25 abandonment screens and 448 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: 3942 across 3097 structure(s); 501 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 2003–2025, administration on this district has been tightening: 1 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 (23 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	204	38	1882-04-01
2015	215	27	1882-04-01
2016	198	56	1882-04-01
2017	185	73	1883-06-30
2018	197	95	1882-04-01
2019	177	30	1882-04-01
2020	204	109	1882-04-01
2021	250	158	1882-04-01
2022	249	87	1882-04-01
2023	365	50	1904-01-02
2024	306	75	1882-04-01
2025	186	97	1882-04-01

Why diversions stopped — call-based explanations

Sustained diversion stops matched to senior administrative calls.

BIG CREEK CANAL D (5800537) DWR↗ stopped 2025-08-04 (71+ days) — call at METZ & REIGAN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
BEAVER CREEK DITCH (5800532) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-31 (15+ days) — call at METZ & REIGAN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
BEAVER DITCH (5800533) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-31 (67+ days) — call at METZ & REIGAN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
BLUFF DITCH (5800543) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-30 (57+ days) — call at METZ & REIGAN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
BARR DITCH (5800522) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-25 (42+ days) — call at SQUARE S CONS D ALT PT curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
ALPHA DITCH (5800508) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-18 (35+ days) — call at METZ & REIGAN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
ACTON D (5800500) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-16 (49+ days) — call at METZ & REIGAN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
BIG MESA DITCH (5800539) DWR↗ stopped 2025-06-24 (10+ days) — call at WILLOW CK DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
BONARD DITCH (5800545) DWR↗ stopped 2025-06-22 (33+ days) — call at WILLOW CK DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
ALPHA DITCH (5800508) DWR↗ stopped 2025-06-21 (12+ days) — call at WILLOW CK DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
BONARD DITCH (5800545) DWR↗ stopped 2025-05-28 (13+ days) — call at METZ & REIGAN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
BARTH DRAKE DITCH (5800523) DWR↗ stopped 2025-05-22 (34+ days) — call at METZ & REIGAN DITCH 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
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS BOATING PARK (RICD) (5802591) DWR↗	2003-12-16	7.5% / 0.0%	7.5% / 0.0%
STAGECOACH HYDROELECTRIC (5801583) DWR↗	1982-10-13	7.5% / 0.0%	7.5% / 0.0%
FOUR COUNTIES D3HG8 (5802813) DWR↗	1958-06-02	7.5% / 0.0%	7.5% / 0.0%
WALTON CREEK DITCH (5800920) DWR↗	1887-07-20	18.5% / 5.6%	7.5% / 0.0%
YAMPA RIVER MSF (5802164) DWR↗	2001-07-24	7.5% / 0.0%	7.5% / 0.0%
ELK RIVER MSF-L (5801355) DWR↗	1977-09-23	7.5% / 0.0%	7.5% / 0.0%
ELK RIVER MSF-U (5802219) DWR↗	1977-09-23	7.5% / 0.0%	7.5% / 0.0%
SUTTLE DITCH (5800897) DWR↗	1888-10-29	17.6% / 4.7%	7.5% / 0.0%
BAXTER DITCH (5800530) DWR↗	1888-10-29	17.6% / 4.7%	7.5% / 0.0%
WESSELS CANAL (5802120) DWR↗	1954-07-05	7.5% / 0.0%	7.5% / 0.0%
SARVIS DITCH (5804684) DWR↗	1911-05-24	7.5% / 0.0%	7.5% / 0.0%
WOOLERY DITCH (5800944) DWR↗	1885-06-14	21.9% / 5.6%	12.3% / 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 ~1941 — idleness that begins before then may be unreported use, not nonuse (flagged † below).

WILLIAM G HERSOM GUNN D (5800941) DWR↗ (1911-09-12, 0.3 cfs decreed): last active 1940 — 85 years idle † predates modern reporting era — last recorded activity predates this basin's modern reporting era (~1941) -- early absence of record is weak evidence of nonuse
BAER DITCH (5800517) DWR↗ (1902-05-02, 1.2 cfs decreed): last active 1948 — 77 years idle
FOLDEN DITCH (5800646) DWR↗ (1922-10-30, 2.0 cfs decreed): last active 1951 — 74 years idle
DEER CREEK DITCH (5800609) DWR↗ (1889-10-31, 1.7 cfs decreed): last active 1953 — 72 years idle
STUKEY PIPELINE (5800891) DWR↗ (1903-05-12, 5.0 cfs decreed): last active 1954 — 71 years idle
FETCHER SPRINGS (5800635) DWR↗ (1955-10-02, 0.1 cfs decreed): last active 1962 — 63 years idle
STUKEY SODA CR D (5800889) DWR↗ (1903-05-12, 11.8 cfs decreed): last active 1962 — 63 years idle
BASHOR DITCH 1 (5800525) DWR↗ (1902-06-30, 3.0 cfs decreed): last active 1964 — 61 years idle
HOGUE SPRING 7 (5801267) DWR↗ (1977-05-30, 0.0 cfs decreed): last active 1965 — 60 years idle
BUSTER SPG 3 (5801283) DWR↗ (1963-06-25, 0.0 cfs decreed): last active 1965 — 60 years idle

Compliance screens (448 advisory flags)

Screened 665 of 3097 structures with rights (868 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.

STAGECOACH HYDROELECTRIC (5801583) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 115.0 cfs (max 181.5) exceeds total decreed absolute 110.0 cfs across 27885 recorded day(s).
STILLWATER DITCH (5804685) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 51.7 cfs (max 67.9) exceeds total decreed absolute 30.8 cfs across 30035 recorded day(s).
ELK VALLEY DITCH CO. D. (5800626) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 47.0 cfs (max 51.6) exceeds total decreed absolute 21.2 cfs across 18495 recorded day(s).
BIG MESA DITCH (5800539) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 41.1 cfs (max 74.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 28.0 cfs across 21389 recorded day(s).
MANDALL DITCH (5800763) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 38.3 cfs (max 72.1) exceeds total decreed absolute 31.1 cfs across 29070 recorded day(s).
WOOLERY DITCH (5800944) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 37.4 cfs (max 39.1) exceeds total decreed absolute 37.4 cfs across 22430 recorded day(s).
KELLER DITCH (5800714) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 30.3 cfs (max 34.5) exceeds total decreed absolute 25.4 cfs across 33185 recorded day(s).
STAFFORD DITCH (5800879) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 28.3 cfs (max 31.8) exceeds total decreed absolute 21.1 cfs across 14421 recorded day(s).
MORIN DITCH (5800783) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 25.4 cfs (max 35.3) exceeds total decreed absolute 21.0 cfs across 25147 recorded day(s).
BUCKINGHAM MANDALL DITCH (5800564) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 25.0 cfs (max 31.2) exceeds total decreed absolute 22.7 cfs across 23117 recorded day(s).

Seniority (top structures by decreed rate)

Structure	Senior priority date	Rights	Decreed abs (cfs)	Conditional?
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS BOATING PARK (RICD) (5802591) DWR↗	2003-12-16	1	1400.0	—
STAGECOACH HYDROELECTRIC (5801583) DWR↗	1982-10-13	1	110.0	—
FOUR COUNTIES D3HG8 (5802813) DWR↗	1958-06-02	2	81.9	yes
WALTON CREEK DITCH (5800920) DWR↗	1887-07-20	14	75.5	yes
YAMPA RIVER MSF (5802164) DWR↗	2001-07-24	1	72.5	—
ELK RIVER MSF-L (5801355) DWR↗	1977-09-23	1	65.0	—
ELK RIVER MSF-U (5802219) DWR↗	1977-09-23	1	65.0	—
SUTTLE DITCH (5800897) DWR↗	1888-10-29	5	52.1	—
BAXTER DITCH (5800530) DWR↗	1888-10-29	4	49.6	—
WESSELS CANAL (5802120) DWR↗	1954-07-05	2	45.7	yes
SARVIS DITCH (5804684) DWR↗	1911-05-24	1	43.0	—
WOOLERY DITCH (5800944) DWR↗	1885-06-14	2	37.4	—
MANDALL DITCH (5800763) DWR↗	1885-10-20	5	31.1	—
STILLWATER DITCH (5804685) DWR↗	1903-09-23	1	30.8	—
ENTERPRISE DITCH (5800627) DWR↗	1887-10-08	6	29.0	—

No inventory or legal-document changes detected since the daily watch began.

Water-court filings this month (division-wide)

5 applications 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 (61 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 5 filings, with excerpts

Case	What it asks	County	Excerpt
`2026CW10`	—	ROUTT	2026CW10 Routt County Application for Absolute Water Rights (Storage). Applicant: Wilton Earle 785 Valley View Drive Craig, CO 81625; 970-824-6258; rettae74@gmail.com.; Logan Earle 785 Valley View Drive Craig, CO 81625; 970-620-5288; earlelogan679@gmail.com St…
`2026CW11`	—	RIO BLANCO	2026CW11 Rio Blanco County Application for Simple Change in Surface Point of Diversion. Applicants: John and Diana Hartman, 2804 E Main Street, Rangely, CO 81648, 970-618-0088, dgrantelk@gmail.com Structure: Calvat Ditch. Original Decree: CA099. Case: 11/26/19…
`2026CW3009`	reasonable diligence	—	2026CW3009 ROUTT AND RIO BLANCO COUNTIES, Prima Ranches LLC, c/o David Harbaugh, 3575 E Cherry Creek North Drive, Denver, CO 80209, (303) 478-8997. Please address all correspondence to: Geoffrey M. Williamson, Katherine Carter, Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP…
`2026CW3010`	change of water right, plan for augmentation, new underground right	ROUTT	2026CW3010 ROUTT COUNTY Water Division: 6. DISTRICT COURT, WATER DIVISION SIX, STATE OF COLORADO, Routt County Combined Court, 1955 Shield Drive, Unit 200, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487. CONCERNING THE APPLICATION FOR WATER RIGHTS OF SIDNEY PEAK RANCH OWNERS’ AS…
`2026CW3011`	change of water right	RIO BLANCO	2026CW3011 RIO BLANCO COUNTY – WHITE RIVER. Mahogany Ranch, LLC, c/o Kevin L. Patrick, and John M. Sittler, Patrick, Miller & Noto, P.C., 229 Midland Ave., Basalt, CO 81621. (970) 920-1030. APPLICATION FOR CHANGE OF WATER RIGHT. Summary of Application: Applica…

Active substitute water supply plans in this district

Temporary State Engineer approvals to divert out of priority (37-92-308 / 37-90-137). A structure operating under one behaves differently under a call than its decreed rights alone suggest — the priority tables above don't know about these; this list does. Source: DWR’s active-SWSP register, refreshed nightly.

Plan	Type	Status	Expires	Structure	Documents
CPW FINGER ROCK STATE FISH UNIT	37-92-308(5) PLANS LESS THAN 5 YEARS	Approved	2027-07-31	—	plan file
STEAMBOAT SAND & GRAVEL PIT (M-2001-090) AKA RIVER VALLEY RESOURCE PIT	37-90-137(11) GRAVEL PIT PLAN	Approved	—	—	plan file

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

Administration number

DWR administration numbers encode appropriation and adjudication dates; lower is more senior.

Upper Yampa River

Schematic

Historical

Evolution of the network

Trends

This year, in context

Gage flow trend & changepoints

What drought has cost here

How the measurement network itself changed

Mass-balance (network closure) trend

Reach gain/loss shifts (1950–2026)

Cross-gage pattern fingerprint

Structures most implicated by reconciliation (as of 2026-07-06)

Data provenance & quality

Groundwater

Well map

3D aquifer x-ray

Water-table trends

Reservoirs

Reservoir map — how full is each vessel?

Basin storage, end of each water year

Largest reservoirs on record

Snow and runoff

Snow-water equivalent, WY2026

Two ways a snow year goes wrong (1979–2026)

Runoff outlook — Yampa R ab Stagecoach Reservoir

How good are these forecasts here? (1998–2025)

What April snow has meant for this river (1989–2025)

Runoff outlook — Yampa R at Steamboat Springs

How good are these forecasts here? (1950–2025)

What April snow has meant for this river (1979–2025)

Runoff outlook — Elk R nr Milner

How good are these forecasts here? (1998–2025)

What April snow has meant for this river (1990–2025)

Legal

Is the river getting harder to divert from?

Why diversions stopped — call-based explanations

Right yield — how often could these rights actually divert?

Abandonment radar (25 screens)

Compliance screens (448 advisory flags)

Seniority (top structures by decreed rate)

Water-court filings this month (division-wide)

Active substitute water supply plans in this district

Call cascade

Pick a calling right