Animas River Basin

Source Our computation, no independent reference · computed here from the screened DWR record Source Our computation, no independent reference · no independent reference; see /methods

This year, in context

In the weeks around 2026-09-30 (the newest reading on file), flows at the 1 ranked gage are running at a median 456% of their own long-term norm for this window — 0 below a typical year, 1 at or above. Driest relative to its record: HERMOSA CREEK NEAR HERMOSA, CO., ranking 57th lowest of 59 years.

Gage flow trend & changepoints

Of the 34 gages with enough record, 7 are trending down and 1 up, and 5 carry a detected shift. The clearest is Cascade Canal above Cascade Reservoir, its annual mean flow changing -15.66 cfs per decade (-80.2% of its median annual flow) over 31 years (p<0.0001). The other 26 show no clear signal either way.

Drought history, cost, and the four-century context moved to the Drought tab.

⚠️ 2 gages flagged: their records may have quietly shifted against their neighbours, so treat their trends with caution.

26 other gage(s) show no significant trend or changepoint (not shown).

2 of those show a significant trend once extended backwards from a retired neighbour's record: Animas River below Durango Pump Plant near Durango (114 yr, decreasing); Cascade Cr above Cascade Cr Diversion near Rockwood (34 yr, decreasing, suspect). Those are reconstructions, not measurements — each gage's page shows both.

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. 23 gage(s) and 319 structure(s) report in 2026, but structure reporting only reached half its modern level around ~1968. 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 †.

Mass-balance (network closure) trend

Structure divrec-history backfill coverage as of the last check: 12% of 2546 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 (1271 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.

• FLORIDA RIVER BELOW FLORIDA FARMERS CANAL NEAR DURANGO: reach shifted from -154 cfs to -8 cfs summer mean (more gaining, p=0.002, 39 yr) [alluvial valley: real alluvial aquifer -- a decades-long shift toward losing is the classic signature of alluvial pumping and urbanization] [measurement-evolution caution: this shift co-moves with the growth of the gage/metering network (rho=0.5) -- part of it may be unaccounted water becoming accounted, not hydrologic change]
• FLORIDA RIVER AT BONDAD, CO.: reach shifted from +129 cfs to -58 cfs summer mean (more losing, p=0.000, 48 yr) [sedimentary plains/foothills: moderate groundwater connectivity -- gain/loss shifts can be real aquifer response; corroborate with nearby well records] [measurement-evolution caution: this shift co-moves with the growth of the gage/metering network (rho=-0.6) -- part of it may be unaccounted water becoming accounted, not hydrologic change]

Groundwater now has its own tab: 145 monitored well(s), water-table trends, stream corridors, and the advisory depletion screen.

Reservoirs now has its own tab: 75 reservoir(s), end-of-year storage back to 1929, click-to-chart histories.

Cross-gage pattern fingerprint

Over the 91-year window with full coverage (1936–2026), the dominant shared pattern across 3 gage(s) explains 94% 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 2026-09-27)

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.

• BLANCHE PLACER PIPE (diversion): +87.2 cfs (100% of that reach's correction)
• IDAHO SPRING (return): +20.3 cfs (25% of that reach's correction)
• BROWN DIVERSION (diversion): +20.3 cfs (25% of that reach's correction)
• SALAZAR'S PIPELINE (diversion): +20.3 cfs (25% of that reach's correction)
• SILVERTON PIPE LINE NO 2 (diversion): +20.3 cfs (25% of that reach's correction)
• GNARLY SPRING (return): +20.3 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
• STINKY SPRING (return): +20.3 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
• WIMPY LADY SPRING (return): +20.3 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
• UNICORN SPRING (return): +20.3 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
• OLYMPIC SPRING (return): +20.3 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)

Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR groundwater wells ↗ Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR well permits ↗

226 water-level measurements across 145 monitored well(s) — 84 alluvial, 0 bedrock — plus 6 administered well(s) reporting metered pumping.

Well map

3D aquifer x-ray

Every aquifer unit as its own head surface, animated through time.

Water-table trends

Of 0 well(s) with enough record for a trend test: 0 declining, 0 rising.

Stream corridors — the surface connection

Where a reach's gain or loss has shifted, the wells within two miles of its anchoring gage and what their water table did over the same era.

FLORIDA RIVER BELOW FLORIDA FARMERS CANAL NEAR DURANGO: 4 alluvial well(s) nearby

FLORIDA RIVER AT BONDAD, CO.: 9 alluvial well(s) nearby

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.

Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR structure records ↗

75 reservoir(s) with 25,201 storage measurement(s), 1929–2026. Basin storage as of 2025-10-31 (the record's own end — reservoir records publish ~annually): 145,284 AF across 31 reservoir(s).

Reservoir map — how full is each vessel?

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.

Source Independent agency measurement · fetched 2026-11-05 · verify at NRCS report generator ↗ Source Our computation, scored against a reference · NRCS forecast, graded here against the gage record

Snow-water equivalent, WY2027

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 droughtA winter that shorts the snowpack. It happens two ways: a dry one, where the snow never comes, and a warm one, where near-normal snow falls but melts off weeks early -- and the river feels them differently.), and the river feels them differently. In 8 of the last 48 winters the snow never came — the pack peaked below 80% of its median. In 2 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.

The snow never came: 1981, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2015, 2018, 2025, 2026. The snow left early: 2012, 2022.

Computed by this site from 6 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 — Animas R at Durango

NRCS's final issue (2026-06-01) calls it even odds that at least 52 kAF arrives over 06-01 to 07-31 — 29% of a normal season; almost certainly at least 20, probably not more than 93. Our own record at this gage shows 50 kAF actually delivered. New forecasts begin in January. How to read these numbers →

The record-adjusted April benchmark

NRCS’s April issue (2026-04-01) called even odds at 115 kAF over 04-01 to 07-31. Re-anchoring that number on this river’s own history — how its April issues have verified, the winter’s baseflow, and the district’s April 1 snowpack — moves it to 128 kAF. The river delivered 128 kAF.

Computed by this site — not an NRCS number, and shown only because it earned it: replayed over 70 past seasons here (1962–2025), never seeing the year it predicts, the adjustment cut the typical April miss from 16% to 12%. At points where it does not beat NRCS, no adjusted number appears. Coefficients are frozen each August; the model never changes mid-season. Method and honest limits →

How good are these forecasts here? (1950–2026)

Grading every April issue against what the river then delivered, measured at this gage’s own record — 76 seasons: the median miss of the 50% forecast is 16%, with a high bias of 4%, and the observed volume landed inside the stated 10–90% band 85% 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 (1979–2026)

Across 48 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 elasticityHow strongly one number moves with another. A snow-to-runoff elasticity of 1.5 means a 10% shortfall in April snowpack has typically become a 15% shortfall in the season's water. of 1.1). In warm, early-melt years the river delivered a median of 59% of a normal season, against 109% 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 — Lemon Reservoir Inflow

NRCS's final issue (2026-06-01) calls it even odds that at least 5 kAF arrives over 06-01 to 07-31 — 25% of a normal season; almost certainly at least 2, probably not more than 12. New forecasts begin in January. How to read these numbers →

The record-adjusted April benchmark

NRCS’s April issue (2026-04-01) called even odds at 13 kAF over 04-01 to 07-31. Re-anchoring that number on this river’s own history — how its April issues have verified, the winter’s baseflow, and the district’s April 1 snowpack — moves it to 14 kAF. The river delivered 16 kAF.

Computed by this site — not an NRCS number, and shown only because it earned it: replayed over 38 past seasons here (1988–2026), never seeing the year it predicts, the adjustment cut the typical April miss from 16% to 15%. At points where it does not beat NRCS, no adjusted number appears. Coefficients are frozen each August; the model never changes mid-season. Method and honest limits →

How good are these forecasts here? (1987–2026)

Grading every April issue against what the river then delivered, measured against NRCS’s naturalized volumes (this point forecasts the river as it would run without upstream storage and diversions — which no gage measures) — 39 seasons: the median miss of the 50% forecast is 16%, with a high bias of 2%, and the observed volume landed inside the stated 10–90% band 88% 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 NRCS’s own naturalized monthly volumes; years missing any month 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 (1979–2026)

Across 48 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 83% of a normal season (a snow-to-runoff elasticityHow strongly one number moves with another. A snow-to-runoff elasticity of 1.5 means a 10% shortfall in April snowpack has typically become a 15% shortfall in the season's water. of 1.0). In warm, early-melt years the river delivered a median of 71% of a normal season, against 121% 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.

Source Our computation, no independent reference · computed here from the screened DWR record Source Independent agency measurement · fetched 2026-10-27 · verify at U.S. Drought Monitor ↗

Right now

This is the 112th-driest week 42 in 116 years of record at ANIMAS RIVER AT DURANGO, CO (as of 2026-10-12; this week’s flow sits at the 97th percentileRank against the record: a river at its 5th percentile is lower than it was in 95 of the past 100 years on this same date. for the date). On this week’s US Drought Monitor, Clear Creek County is 19% in D3 extreme drought (2026-10-27). The law agrees: the most senior active call leaves 82% of this district’s decreed flow rights junior to the calling right this week.

Every year since 1897, week by week

Each thin row is a year at ANIMAS RIVER AT DURANGO, CO; each cell is one week’s flow ranked against the same calendar week of every other year — warm means dry for the date, blue wet, so seasonality cancels and droughts appear as warm bands. Gaps are missing record, never a dry river. Click a year to reconstruct it on the Historical tab.

This year against its analogs

Over the 42 weeks recorded so far, 2026’s weekly trace most resembles 1940 (mean gap 18.7 percentile points; next closest 2002 (20.0), 1996 (21.9)). The analog’s remainder is drawn as context — its ending is what happened to it, not a forecast for this year.

The Drought Monitor’s view since 2000

Mean share of area in each class across Clear Creek, La Plata, San Juan counties — the counties this district’s gages sit in, which overlap the district imperfectly. The Drought Monitor weighs soils, vegetation and local reports; it is CONTEXT beside the river’s own record above, not the water-rights picture.

The law’s own drought gauge

When water runs short, administration answers: calls reach further back in time, and more decreed rights go junior to the calling right. This is that response, weekly since 2002 — the share of this district’s decreed flow rights junior to the most senior active call. Watch it spike in the named droughts below, and linger after the river recovers.

Computed from DWR’s call record (211 calls touching this district) against the district’s rights index. Scoping is deliberately coarse — a call’s own district, or districts named in its comments — and this is administration’s RESPONSE, not a per-structure verdict (each dossier’s curtailment card does that, with stream miles). A deepening call can also reflect growing demand, not only shrinking supply.

This basin’s droughts, by its own record

Detected mechanically: the 26-week smoothed percentile below the 30th for at least 20 weeks; recovered on regaining the 50th. The water-table clock compares each monitoring well against its own pre-drought median (the 3 years before onset) and dates the year the median well got back — the aquifer remembers longest, and “still below” is a finding, not a gap. The knobs are stated because the episode list depends on them — a different reasonable choice merges or splits episodes at the edges. Names are attached where an episode overlaps a drought Colorado already talks about.

What drought has cost here

Since 1994, federal crop insurance has paid $689,401 in drought-caused claims across Clear Creek, La Plata, San Juan counties — 18.3% of all insured crop losses there. The worst year was 2002 ($75,597).

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.

When this basin claimed its water

Every bar is a year’s new appropriations (2,256 rights across 119 years of shared record), colored by that year’s wetness from the barcode above. Here the correlation is +0.01 — essentially no wet-dry pattern; here, law and settlement set the pace, not the weather. Across the state both behaviors exist: ephemeral southwest basins file after wet demonstrations, transbasin-source basins under drought — and the biggest statewide filing waves sat in the 1950s drought and after 2002, not in the wet 1980s–90s.

Appropriation dates are the CLAIMED initiation of a right, not the courthouse filing date; the record is survivor-biased (abandoned claims are absent, so failed dry-era scrambles are undercounted); and the big 1960s and 2000s spikes sit on legal events — the pre-1969-Act adjudication era and 2000s legislation — not on weather. A correlation here is a description, never a cause.

New to how a dry winter becomes a call on the river? Anatomy of a drought walks the chain in four minutes — snow to rivers to reservoirs to calls to the water table.

Who serves it, who protects it

Two registers the site fetches on their own schedules, read for this district. Neither is a DWR record; each links its own page and its agency.

Public water systems here

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-10-06 · verify at EPA SDWIS ↗

26 systems touch this district (26 community systems reporting 48,442 people served, a figure that counts a wholesaler's customers twice); 1 of them carries an open health-based violation on EPA's record.

and 18 more; the full directory filters by district.

Instream-flow rights held by the state

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-11-01 · verify at CWCB instream flow program ↗

41 reaches over 202.8 miles and 20 natural lake levels, held by the Colorado Water Conservation Board so that water stays in the stream. Every reach, with its schedule and case →

• Florida River, 27.0 mi: 14 (10/15 - 6/30), 7 (7/1 - 10/14) cfs (appropriated 1977, 77W1763) · dossier
• Florida River, 11.0 mi: 20 (10/15 - 6/30), 12 (7/1 - 10/14) cfs (appropriated 1977, 77W1764) · dossier
• Junction Creek, 10.0 mi: 15 (4/1 - 8/31), 5 (9/1 - 3/31) cfs (appropriated 1976, 76W1498) · dossier
• Lime Creek, 9.3 mi: 6 (1/1 - 12/31) cfs (appropriated 1984, 84CW0273) · dossier
• Hermosa Creek, 8.6 mi: 14 (10/1 - 4/14), 21 (4/15 - 9/30) cfs (appropriated 1987, 87CW0046) · dossier
• South Fork Mineral Creek, 8.4 mi: 18 (1/1 - 12/31) cfs (appropriated 1984, 84CW0272) · dossier

and 55 more on the district's instream-flow page.

What the water is like -- USGS sensors right now, where it has been sampled, the impaired-waters list, and how the tap water here stands with EPA -- is on the Water quality tab.

Designated groundwater basins are on their own page.

Source Adjudicated record · verify at DWR water-right transactions ↗ Source Adjudicated record · verify at DWR net amounts ↗

Decreed rights on this network run from 1868-03-02 to 2025-07-31. Of the 20 structures with a yield estimate, the median one’s senior right was in priority 2% of a median irrigation season and 0% in a dry one. 4 abandonment screens and 271 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: 2855 across 2278 structure(s); 465 structure(s) carry 6 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 callA senior water right demanding its water, which requires everyone junior on that stream to stop diverting until it is satisfied., calls set, seniorityColorado shares water by date: the earlier the right, the stronger its claim when the river runs short. "First in time, first in right." of the controlling call) are moving toward more administration, none the other way.

Why diversions stopped — call-based explanations

Sustained diversion stops matched to senior administrative calls.

• BUTLER DITCH (3000518) DWR↗☆ stopped 2025-10-06 (22+ days) — call at MOLLY'S DITCH curtailing 71% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
• GAINES-BUCHANAN DITCH (3000551) DWR↗☆ stopped 2025-09-14 (7+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
• BEAR CREEK DITCH (3000510) DWR↗☆ stopped 2025-08-17 (7+ days) — call at SPRING CREEK DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
• BUTLER DITCH (3000518) DWR↗☆ stopped 2025-08-11 (14+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
• FISH DITCH (3000548) DWR↗☆ stopped 2025-06-30 (22+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
• EMBLING-MAYER DITCH (3000539) DWR↗☆ stopped 2025-05-19 (7+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 81% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
• BUTLER DITCH (3000518) DWR↗☆ stopped 2024-10-03 (235+ days) — call at SPRING CREEK DITCH curtailing 71% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
• DUDLEY AND KERR DITCH (3000532) DWR↗☆ stopped 2024-09-17 (7+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 50% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
• GAINES-BUCHANAN DITCH (3000551) DWR↗☆ stopped 2024-09-17 (21+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
• F STEINEGGER IRG DITCH (3000543) DWR↗☆ stopped 2024-08-05 (450+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
• AMBOLD-WALLACE DITCH (3000504) DWR↗☆ stopped 2024-05-19 (9+ days) — call at COTTONWOOD DITCH NO 2 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.

Abandonment radar (4 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 ~1968 — idleness that begins before then may be unreported use, not nonuse (flagged † below).

• FLORIDA CANAL AND RES (3003576) DWR↗☆ (1911-05-29, 0.0 cfs decreed): last active 1955 — 19 years idle † predates modern reporting era — last recorded activity predates this basin's modern reporting era (~1968) -- early absence of record is weak evidence of nonuse
• WATER WITCH DITCH (3000672) DWR↗☆ (1882-05-05, 0.2 cfs decreed): last active 1958 — 16 years idle † predates modern reporting era — last recorded activity predates this basin's modern reporting era (~1968) -- early absence of record is weak evidence of nonuse
• MCCLUER MURRAY ANNALA EX (3001531) DWR↗☆ (1878-04-15, 0.5 cfs decreed): last active 1960 — 14 years idle † predates modern reporting era — last recorded activity predates this basin's modern reporting era (~1968) -- early absence of record is weak evidence of nonuse
• JAMES DITCH (3000578) DWR↗☆ (1908-04-04, 0.5 cfs decreed): last active 1962 — 12 years idle † predates modern reporting era — last recorded activity predates this basin's modern reporting era (~1968) -- early absence of record is weak evidence of nonuse

Compliance screens (271 advisory flags)

Screened 439 of 2278 structures with rights (507 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.

• ANIMAS CONSOLIDATED D (3000506) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 88.7 cfs (max 104.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 85.9 cfs across 73040 recorded day(s).
• REID DITCH (3000617) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 77.9 cfs (max 116.5) exceeds total decreed absolute 64.4 cfs across 75517 recorded day(s).
• ANIMAS DITCH (3001023) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 61.0 cfs (max 74.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 56.2 cfs across 48557 recorded day(s).
• J P LAMB DITCH (3000581) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 35.0 cfs (max 40.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 7.0 cfs across 30629 recorded day(s).
• EAST FORK HERMOSA CREEK (3001929) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 24.6 cfs (max 79.6) exceeds total decreed absolute 3.0 cfs across 3133 recorded day(s).
• GREGG PIPELINE (3001115) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 24.0 cfs (max 24.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 0.8 cfs across 484 recorded day(s).
• TWIN ROCK DITCH (3004665) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 21.5 cfs (max 27.2) exceeds total decreed absolute 2.2 cfs across 40259 recorded day(s).
• HERMOSA COMPANY DITCH (3000568) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 19.0 cfs (max 27.6) exceeds total decreed absolute 12.5 cfs across 42894 recorded day(s).
• NORTON PUMP AND PL (3000606) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 18.0 cfs (max 18.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 0.2 cfs across 668 recorded day(s).
• PIONEER DITCH (3001019) DWR↗☆: Observed p99 daily rate 17.0 cfs (max 38.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 14.9 cfs across 47277 recorded day(s).

Seniority (top structures by decreed rate)

Recent inventory & legal-document changes

• 2026-10-28 — call released: 38819
• 2026-10-28 — call released: 37405
• 2026-10-14 — call released: 38607
• 2026-10-14 — call released: 38820
• 2026-10-14 — call released: 38609
• 2026-10-01 — call released: 39556
• 2026-10-01 — call released: 37181
• 2026-09-30 — call released: 39596

Water-court filings this month (division-wide)

4 applications in the 2026-09 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 2026-11-30 (25 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.

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.

The water itself, in this district

Four registers, each on its own schedule: what USGS sensors read right now, where samples have been taken, which stretches the state lists as impaired, and how the tap water of the systems here stands with EPA. None is a DWR record; each links its own page.

Right now

Source Provisional telemetry · fetched 2026-11-04 · verify at USGS current conditions ↗

1 USGS sensor reports temperature, conductance, dissolved oxygen or turbidity from inside this district; provisional readings, never merged into the verified record.

Where water has been sampled

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-10-08 · verify at Water Quality Portal ↗

The portal lists 4,602 sampling stations in this district's watershed (Animas 14080104), of which 133 reported a sample in the last 5 years on the state and tribal side (USGS activity is in the station count, not in that figure). Most active: Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment-WQCD (50), USGS Colorado Water Science Center (37), Colorado River Watch (26). Most-sampled groups: Inorganics, Major, Metals, Physical, Inorganics, Minor, Metals, Organics, PCBs. Every station as a file ↗

Results themselves are not fetched here; USGS samples added after March 2024 may not be in the portal's legacy profiles yet.

Drinking water

Source Register of another agency · fetched 2026-10-07 · verify at EPA SDWIS ↗

26 community systems touch this district. 1 carries an open health-based violation on EPA's record; 2 are listed by EPA as serious violators. EPA sampled 1 of them for PFAS in 2023–25; none had PFOA or PFOS at or above the 2024 limit.

and 16 more; the full directory filters by district.

EPA's record carries violations and lead/copper percentiles; nitrate and disinfection by-product results are not in it. UCMR 5 samples are monitoring, not compliance, and the 2024 PFOA/PFOS limits equal its reporting limit, so any detection of those two is at or above them.

Impaired waters

Source Register of another agency · verify at EPA ATTAINS ↗

The state's 303(d) impaired-waters list has not been joined to this basin's own watershed boundary yet, so nothing is shown rather than a guess; the basins with a join carry the full list here. Why the join is geometry, not a name match.