Animas River Basin on the ground — the ditches, wells, reservoirs and gages of Water District 30 · clicktap anything for its record
Snowpack — no snow on the ground at 6 SNOTEL sites — normal for the date; the snow year begins in October and typically peaks around March 6. Runoff outlook — Animas R at Durango: even odds of at least 52 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 29% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Runoff outlook — Lemon Reservoir Inflow: even odds of at least 5 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) | Median (in) | % of median | Typical peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cascade #2 | 8990 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | March 6 (10.4 in) |
| Mineral Creek | 10030 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 9 (15.6 in) |
| Molas Lake | 10610 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 11 (22.0 in) |
| Red Mountain Pass | 11060 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 25 (25.0 in) |
| Spud Mountain | 10660 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 4 (25.6 in) |
| Stump Lakes | 11230 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 22 (18.8 in) |
Animas R at Durango — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):
| 90% | 70% | 50% | 30% | 10% | Normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 36 | 52 | 70 | 93 | 177 |
Lemon Reservoir Inflow — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):
| 90% | 70% | 50% | 30% | 10% | Normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 21 |
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: 11 parent disagreements, 9 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 26 streams, 15 agree. Know this water? Tell us →
| Stream | This site routes it to | DWR routes it to |
|---|---|---|
| Salt Creek | the mainstem | Hermosa Creek |
| Lightner Creek | the mainstem | Animas River |
| Junction Creek | the mainstem | Animas River |
| Big Spring Creek | the mainstem | Hermosa Creek |
| Elbert Creek | the mainstem | Animas River |
| Spring Creek | the mainstem | Animas River |
| Spring Gulch | the mainstem | Animas River |
| Wilson Gulch | the mainstem | Animas River |
Sizable streams DWR maps here that this network does not carry:
Dry Creek (6 mi) · Red Creek (5 mi) · Miller Creek (5 mi) · Long Hollow (4 mi) · True Creek (4 mi) · Phillips Canyon (4 mi) · Brice Canyon (3 mi) · Shearer Creek (3 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.
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 20 ranked gages are running at a median 28% of their own long-term norm for this window — 19 below a typical year, 1 at or above. Driest relative to its record: CASCADE CANAL ABOVE CASCADE RESERVOIR, ranking 1st lowest of 35 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 21:15 from 34 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 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.
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.
| Gage | Trend | Change / decade cfs · % of median annual flow | Significance | Years | Changepoint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
▸
⚠️
Cascade Canal above Cascade Reservoir CASCANCO |
↓ decreasing | -15.66 cfs -80.2% | p<0.001 | 31 | ~2012 |
|
▸
Florida Canal FLOCANCO |
↓ decreasing | -3.51 cfs -26.7% | p<0.001 | 27 | ~2008 |
|
▸
Florida River below Lemon Reservoir FLOBLECO |
↓ decreasing | -9.28 cfs -10.5% | p=0.003 | 53 | ~2001 |
|
▸
Florida River near Durango FLODURCO |
↓ decreasing | -18.90 cfs -18.9% | p=0.004 | 39 | — |
|
▸
Florida River at Bondad FLOBONCO |
↓ decreasing | -6.44 cfs -14.0% | p=0.017 | 41 | — |
|
▸
⚠️
Elbert Creek below Cascade Reservoir ELBCASCO |
↑ increasing | +0.33 cfs +39.5% | p=0.017 | 25 | ~2011 |
|
▸
Florida River above Lemon Reservoir near Durango FLOALECO |
↓ decreasing
extended
113 yr: no trend
|
-6.31 cfs -8.2% | p=0.018 | 53 | ~1999 |
|
▸
Animas River at Durango ANIDURCO |
↓ decreasing | -19.01 cfs -2.5% | p=0.020 | 111 | — |
⚠️ 2 gages flagged: their records may have quietly shifted against their neighbours, so treat their trends with caution.
How drift is detected
Every gage's annual flows are compared against each neighbour's as a double-mass curve (Searcy & Hardison, USGS WSP 1541-B); a Pettitt step test looks for a break in the ratio. A gage is flagged only when the breaks AGREE across its references, and a break against an already-suspect gage is never counted against a healthy one. A double-mass break means the ratio between two gages changed, not that either gage is faulty: a new diversion, a reservoir, or an import changes that ratio exactly as a rating shift does. Screening aid for expert review, never a measurement verdict.
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 (113 yr, decreasing); Cascade Cr above Cascade Cr Diversion near Rockwood (33 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 †.
| Decade | Gages with data (median yr) | Structures reporting (median yr) |
|---|---|---|
| 1890s | 1 | 0 |
| 1900s | 1 | 0 |
| 1910s | 1 | 0 |
| 1920s | 3 | 0 |
| 1930s | 4 | 138 |
| 1940s | 8 | 110 |
| 1950s | 6 | 122 |
| 1960s | 8 | 114 |
| 1970s | 9 | 231 |
| 1980s | 5 | 241 |
| 1990s | 11 | 277 |
| 2000s | 18 | 286 |
| 2010s | 22 | 331 |
| 2020s | 24 | 314 |
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 2026-07-06)
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.
- BLANCHE PLACER PIPE (diversion): +97.4 cfs (100% of that reach's correction)
- GNARLY SPRING (return): +5.6 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
- STINKY SPRING (return): +5.6 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
- WIMPY LADY SPRING (return): +5.6 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
- UNICORN SPRING (return): +5.6 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
- OLYMPIC SPRING (return): +5.6 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
- ELK SPRING (return): +5.6 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
- DEER PARK SPRING #2 (return): +5.6 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
- MAZEPPA PIPELINE (diversion): +5.6 cfs (5% of that reach's correction)
- CATARACT GULCH SPRING (return): +5.6 cfs (5% 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 304 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 403,299 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 — 98.37% day-level agreement with USGS's own published records for the same gages, across 23 co-listed station(s) and 251,954 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.
34 gage(s) / 393,635 daily values (1897-10-01–2026-07-06); 656 structure(s) with diversion records; 2277 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
226 water-level measurements across 145 monitored well(s) — 84 alluvial, 0 bedrock — plus 6 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.
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.
How the corridor is assembled
For each reach whose gain/loss has shifted (Trends tab): the wells within 2 miles of its anchoring gage, their pooled water-table history over the same era, and an advisory Glover screen of lagged stream depletion from nearby metered pumping. v1 proximity = distance to the reach's anchoring gage; segment-based reach join is a flagged upgrade.
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.
Reservoirs
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).
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) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ▸ RIDGES BASIN RESERVOIR (3003623) | 121,244 | 2025-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ CASCADE RESERVOIR (3003536) | 20,592 | 2024-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ LEMON RESERVOIR (3003581) | 14,164 | 2010-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ JOHNSON RESERVOIR (3003707) | 823 | 2025-10-29 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ KEELER RESERVOIR (3003547) | 488 | 2025-10-28 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ HAVILAND LAKE RESERVOIR (3003540) | 459 | 2025-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ DURANGO RESERVOIR NO 1 (3003571) | 450 | 1978-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ ICE LAKE RESERVOIR (3003546) | 416 | 2025-10-28 | — | — | dossier → |
Snow and runoff
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) | Median (in) | % of median | Typical peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cascade #2 | 8990 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | March 6 (10.4 in) |
| Mineral Creek | 10030 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 9 (15.6 in) |
| Molas Lake | 10610 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 11 (22.0 in) |
| Red Mountain Pass | 11060 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 25 (25.0 in) |
| Spud Mountain | 10660 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 4 (25.6 in) |
| Stump Lakes | 11230 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 22 (18.8 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 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. This year was one of the dry ones: the pack peaked at 42% of median.
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 38 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 36 | 52 | 70 | 93 | 177 | 38 |
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 16%, with a high bias of 4%, and the observed volume landed inside the stated 10–90% band 84% 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 (1979–2025)
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 68% 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 58% of a normal season, against 107% 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 →
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 21 |
How good are these forecasts here? (2003–2010)
Grading every April issue against what the river then delivered, measured at this gage’s own record — 8 seasons: the median miss of the 50% forecast is 1653%, with a high bias of 1653%, and the observed volume landed inside the stated 10–90% band 0% 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 (1979–2010)
Across 13 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 75% 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 0.5).
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.
Legal
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 3% 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: 2854 across 2277 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 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 | 319 | 117 | 1883-05-15 |
| 2015 | 316 | 90 | 1899-05-13 |
| 2016 | 273 | 94 | 1888-02-08 |
| 2017 | 297 | 98 | 1904-01-02 |
| 2018 | 285 | 164 | 1878-05-15 |
| 2019 | 186 | 53 | 1880-06-01 |
| 2020 | 240 | 171 | 1986-11-23 |
| 2021 | 246 | 143 | 1876-11-01 |
| 2022 | 261 | 161 | 1888-03-20 |
| 2023 | 198 | 82 | 1880-06-01 |
| 2024 | 231 | 114 | 1876-10-10 |
| 2025 | 281 | 169 | 1888-03-20 |
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]
- BUTLER DITCH (3000518) DWR↗ stopped 2023-10-04 (246+ days) — call at SPRING CREEK DITCH curtailing 71% of its decreed rate [heuristic-partial]
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DURANGO BOATING PARK STRUCTURE 5 (3001691) DWR↗ | 2006-02-23 | 1.8% / 0.0% | 1.8% / 0.0% |
| DURANGO BOATING PARK STRUCTURE 12 (3001694) DWR↗ | 2006-02-23 | 1.8% / 0.0% | 1.8% / 0.0% |
| DURANGO BOATING PARK STRUCTURE 11 (3001693) DWR↗ | 2006-02-23 | 1.8% / 0.0% | 1.8% / 0.0% |
| DURANGO BOATING PARK STRUCTURE 9 (3001692) DWR↗ | 2006-02-23 | 1.8% / 0.0% | 1.8% / 0.0% |
| CASCADE CANAL (3000523) DWR↗ | 1902-10-02 | 4.4% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| ANIMAS DIVERSION CANAL (3000509) DWR↗ | 1938-09-02 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| POWER CANAL NO 1 (3000612) DWR↗ | 1902-10-02 | 4.4% / 0.0% | 4.4% / 0.0% |
| FLORIDA FARMERS DITCH (3001011) DWR↗ | 1883-12-05 | 46.5% / 18.2% | 1.8% / 0.0% |
| LITTLE CASCADE CR CANAL (3000588) DWR↗ | 1902-10-02 | 4.4% / 0.0% | 4.4% / 0.0% |
| FLORIDA CANAL (3001013) DWR↗ | 1888-09-29 | 30.1% / 11.7% | 1.8% / 0.0% |
| ANIMAS CONSOLIDATED D (3000506) DWR↗ | 1875-01-01 | 100.0% / 100.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| REID DITCH (3000617) DWR↗ | 1876-01-01 | 100.0% / 48.1% | 1.8% / 0.0% |
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 2277 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)
| Structure | Senior priority date | Rights | Decreed abs (cfs) | Decreed abs (AF) | Conditional? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DURANGO BOATING PARK STRUCTURE 5 (3001691) DWR↗ | 2006-02-23 | 1 | 1400.0 | 0 | — |
| DURANGO BOATING PARK STRUCTURE 9 (3001692) DWR↗ | 2006-02-23 | 1 | 1400.0 | 0 | — |
| DURANGO BOATING PARK STRUCTURE 11 (3001693) DWR↗ | 2006-02-23 | 1 | 1400.0 | 0 | — |
| DURANGO BOATING PARK STRUCTURE 12 (3001694) DWR↗ | 2006-02-23 | 1 | 1400.0 | 0 | — |
| CASCADE CANAL (3000523) DWR↗ | 1902-10-02 | 2 | 400.0 | 0 | — |
| ANIMAS DIVERSION CANAL (3000509) DWR↗ | 1938-09-02 | 2 | 287.0 | 0 | yes |
| POWER CANAL NO 1 (3000612) DWR↗ | 1902-10-02 | 1 | 250.0 | 0 | — |
| FLORIDA FARMERS DITCH (3001011) DWR↗ | 1883-12-05 | 8 | 185.0 | 0 | — |
| LITTLE CASCADE CR CANAL (3000588) DWR↗ | 1902-10-02 | 1 | 120.0 | 0 | — |
| FLORIDA CANAL (3001013) DWR↗ | 1888-09-29 | 4 | 111.0 | 0 | — |
| ANIMAS CONSOLIDATED D (3000506) DWR↗ | 1875-01-01 | 8 | 85.9 | 0 | — |
| REID DITCH (3000617) DWR↗ | 1876-01-01 | 12 | 64.4 | 0 | — |
| ANIMAS DITCH (3001023) DWR↗ | 1868-03-02 | 5 | 56.2 | 0 | — |
| HERMOSA CR(LOWER REACH) (3001928) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 1 | 37.0 | 0 | — |
| EAST MESA DITCH (3001094) DWR↗ | 1904-07-19 | 2 | 26.0 | 0 | — |
No inventory or legal-document changes detected since the daily watch began.
Water-court filings this month (division-wide)
4 applications in the 2026-07 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 2026-09-30 (30 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 4 filings, with excerpts
| Case | What it asks | County | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|---|
2026CW3007
3001335 |
change of water right | LA PLATA | 2026CW3007 La Plata County, AMENDED APPLICATION FOR CHANGE OF WATER RIGHT AND NEW WATER RIGHTS. 1. Name and address of Applicants : Gilleland Enterprises, LLC and C&J Gravel Products, Inc. (“Applicants”)c/o John Gilleland 27661 Highway 160 Durango, CO 81301 jo… |
2026CW3016
|
reasonable diligence | LA PLATA | 2026CW3016 La Plata County, Application for Finding of Reasonable Diligence in the Florida River Watershed; Prior case no. 18CW3047: Applicant: The Bingel-Davis Gratitude Trust, u/a dated April 17, 2025, c/o Kimberly C. Perdue, Southwest Water and Property Law… |
2026CW3017
|
— | LA PLATA | 2026CW3017 La Plata County, (20CW3008, 13CW3027, 05CW90)… |
2026CW4
|
— | ARCHULETA | 2026CW4 Archuleta County, Jess E. Ketchum, 320 Stevens Lake Road, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147: Watson Reservoir (Reservoir Pump); Located in the SW 1/4 SE 1/4 of Section 5, T35N, R2W, NMPM, the axis intersects the East abutment at a point approximately 875 ft. No… |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SWWCD EMERGENCY | 37-92-308(7) PLAN EMERGENCY | Approved | 2026-10-06 | 3007106 | plan file |
| NORTHERN SAN JUAN BASIN FRUITLAND FORMATION FLORIDA AND PINE RIVER | 37-92-308(4) PLAN PENDING COURT APPLICATION | Decreed | — | — | plan file |
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.