La Plata River Basin

Division 7 · Water District 33

Draft - NLDI/CDSS verified

Bootstrap review report — d7_wd33_la_plata_river_basin

Generated 2026-08-16 09:04 UTC for Division 7 / Water District 33.

This is a review checklist, not a finished config. Everything below is a suggestion from live DWR data — confirm or correct each section in config.yaml before running this basin for real.

1. Stream-name patterns

Assumed mainstem pattern: LA PLATA RIVER (highest-count waterSource value). Candidates below by structure count — decide which are real tributaries worth their own centerline vs. noise, and add them to longitudinal.tributary_stream_patterns in priority order (more-specific names, e.g. "WEST FORK X", must precede substrings of themselves, e.g. "X").

waterSource	structure count
LA PLATA RIVER (assumed mainstem)	56
CHERRY CREEK	30
LONG HOLLOW	24
HAY GULCH	22
UNDEFINED	21

2. Diversion / return classification

Auto-classified from structureType + name patterns: 110 diversions, 12 returns, 48 unclassified (neither pattern matched — these render as neither on the schematic unless added to return_flow_wdids/force_diversion_wdids or a type is added to the diversion/return type lists).

This layer needs the least manual work — it's the same heuristic the engine uses at runtime. Spot-check a sample rather than reviewing every row; if you have a water-year accounting spreadsheet for this basin, cross-reference it against the 'other' bucket specifically (that's where a real augmentation return with an unusual DWR structureType will hide).

2b. Cross-checked against decreed water rights (CDSS)

12 structure(s) have a decreed water right (CDSS waterrights/netamount) that disagrees with the structureType/name-pattern classification above. Same-agency evidence (DWR/HydroBase), not independent of DWR the way the NLDI topology check is — worth a glance, not an automatic correction.

wdid	structure	currently	decreed uses suggest	decreed uses
3305010	LAPP/SCHAEFER WELL SYS	other	diversion	Domestic, Stock
3305015	SHALAKO WELL NO 1	other	diversion	Domestic, Stock
3305016	SHALAKO WELL NO 2	other	diversion	Commercial
3305017	SHALAKO WELL NO 3	other	diversion	Commercial, Domestic
3305020	RINION DE LA PLATA SUB W	other	diversion	Commercial, Domestic, Industrial, Irrigation, Other
3305022	TATE WELL #1	other	diversion	Commercial, Domestic
3305024	PINEWIND MOBILE HME PK#1	other	diversion	Commercial, Domestic, Irrigation, Municipal
3305051	MOSES WELL	other	diversion	Domestic
3305052	MAY DAY MINE	other	diversion	Commercial, Industrial, Storage
3305053	BURLESON WELL #1	other	diversion	Domestic, Irrigation, Stock
3305059	HOMESTEAD WELL	other	diversion	Commercial
3305060	EC WELL	other	diversion	Commercial, Domestic

3. Suspected nested tributaries

Still need a human decision — these tributary pairs are comparably close to EACH OTHER as to the mainstem — one may actually join the other rather than the mainstem directly (like Leavenworth Creek -> South Clear Creek in the Clear Creek basin). NLDI couldn't resolve these (no nearby flowline, or ambiguous/no downstream overlap within range) — if you know the real topology, set it in longitudinal.tributary_parent_overrides.

tributary	possible parent	dist to possible parent (mi)	dist to mainstem (mi)	NLDI result
CHERRY CREEK	HAY GULCH	3.67	2.66	ambiguous -- tied earliest overlap at index 4: ['HAY GULCH', 'MAINSTEM']
LONG HOLLOW	HAY GULCH	0.13	0.3	ambiguous -- tied earliest overlap at index 2: ['HAY GULCH', 'MAINSTEM']

4. Gage placement risk

1 gage(s) would currently fail placement (> 2.5mi from the nearest centerline anchor — same failure mode as the Clear Creek at Derby bug). Options: raise the cutoff (check it doesn't sweep in an unrelated stream first — see the Little Dry Creek case), or add a manual override.

gage	name	nearest stream	distance (mi)
LAPLAPNM	LA PLATA RIVER AT LA PLATA, NM	HAY GULCH	4.78

23 more gage(s) pass but are within 2x the cutoff distance — worth a glance if the structure dataset changes later.

Next steps

Fill in tributary_stream_patterns from section 1.
Resolve section 3's flags (or confirm none apply).
Resolve section 4's at-risk gages.
Cross-reference return_flow_wdids/force_diversion_wdids against any local accounting source you have for this basin.
Review the rendered schematic for this district before relying on it.

Reconstruct conditions as of

Evolution of the network

Computed 2026-08-20 09:38 from 25 gage(s) with cached period-of-record data. Statistical tests (Mann-Kendall trend, Pettitt changepoint) require at least 8 years spanning at least 10 years of record -- gages below that report no signal, not "no change."

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 45 day(s) old (target 7)
diversion record	expected-lag	newest diversion record is 293 day(s) old (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears)
structure coverage	sparse	15% of schematic structures have data

Independent check: PASS — 100.0000% agreement across 295,064 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 — 99.77% day-level agreement with USGS's own published records for the same gages, across 5 co-listed station(s) and 120,076 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.

25 gage(s) / 285,432 daily values (1917-10-01–2026-07-06); 102 structure(s) with diversion records; 364 with decreed rights. Methodology has not yet had independent expert review — treat every figure as an advisory screen, not an administrative or legal conclusion.

Read this first: the measurement network itself evolved

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 47 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)
1910s	1	0
1920s	2	0
1930s	3	0
1940s	4	0
1950s	3	30
1960s	3	31
1970s	3	76
1980s	4	53
1990s	10	48
2000s	11	48
2010s	23	48
2020s	23	47

Gage flow trend & changepoints

Every located gage with a period of record — dot size scales with the strength of its flow trend (|Sen slope| in %/decade, the same statistic as the table below), color with direction. An amber ring marks a detected Pettitt changepoint. Click a gage to chart its trend and shift.

Gage	Trend	Change / decade	Significance	Years	Changepoint
▸ LA PLATA RIVER NEAR BREEN LAPBRECO	↓ decreasing	-325.9%	p=0.014	19	—
▸ LA PLATA RIVER AT LA PLATA, NM LAPLAPNM	↓ decreasing	-265.3%	p=0.035	24	—
▸ ENTERPRISE DITCH AT THE COLORADO-NEW MEXICO STATELINE ENTDITCO	↓ decreasing	-76.5%	p=0.002	34	~2017
▸ CHERRY CREEK AT THE MOUTH NEAR RED MESA CHEREDCO	↓ decreasing	-69.0%	p=0.002	38	~2000
▸ PIONEER DITCH AT THE COLORADO-NEW MEXICO STATELINE PIODITCO	↓ decreasing	-50.7%	p=0.023	33	—
▸ LONG HOLLOW AT THE MOUTH NEAR RED MESA LONREDCO	↓ decreasing	-47.2%	p=0.000	35	~2001
▸ LA PLATA RIVER NEAR FARMINGTON, NM. LAPFARNM	↓ decreasing	-36.9%	p=0.022	86	~1999
▸ HAY GULCH ABOVE RED MESA RESERVOIR HAYREDCO	↓ decreasing	-33.0%	p=0.000	35	~1999
▸ LA PLATA RIVER AT THE COLORADO-NEW MEXICO STATELINE LAPMEXCO	↓ decreasing	-10.5%	p=0.000	106	~1999

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

Mass-balance (network closure) trend

Structure divrec-history backfill coverage as of the last check: 15% of 208 schematic-relevant structures. 0 year(s) clear the 30% coverage gate so far -- the trend activates automatically once qualifying years span a full decade. No action needed; the nightly backfill keeps extending the record.

Reach gain/loss shifts (1950–2026)

Mass-balance kinks computed for every summer month back to 1950 (971 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.

LA PLATA RIVER AT HESPERUS, CO: reach shifted from +57 cfs to +0 cfs summer mean (more losing, p=0.000, 41 yr) [alluvial valley: real alluvial aquifer -- a decades-long shift toward losing is the classic signature of alluvial pumping and urbanization]
LONG HOLLOW AT THE MOUTH NEAR RED MESA: reach shifted from +0 cfs to -28 cfs summer mean (more losing, p=0.024, 22 yr) [alluvial valley: real alluvial aquifer -- a decades-long shift toward losing is the classic signature of alluvial pumping and urbanization]
LA PLATA RIVER AT THE COLORADO-NEW MEXICO STATELINE: reach shifted from -19 cfs to +36 cfs summer mean (more gaining, p=0.000, 75 yr) [alluvial valley: real alluvial aquifer -- a decades-long shift toward losing is the classic signature of alluvial pumping and urbanization]
ENTERPRISE DITCH AT THE COLORADO-NEW MEXICO STATELINE: reach shifted from -8 cfs to -24 cfs summer mean (more losing, p=0.023, 19 yr) [alluvial valley: real alluvial aquifer -- a decades-long shift toward losing is the classic signature of alluvial pumping and urbanization]

Groundwater now has its own tab: 49 monitored well(s), water-table trends, stream corridors, and the advisory depletion screen.

Reservoirs now has its own tab: 9 reservoir(s), end-of-year storage back to 1950, click-to-chart histories.

Cross-gage pattern fingerprint

Over the 38-year window with full coverage (1989–2026), the dominant shared pattern across 3 gage(s) explains 84% 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.

The basin's aquifer story, from 94 water-level measurements across 49 monitored well(s) (30 alluvial, 0 bedrock, rest unclassified) — plus 0 administered well(s) reporting metered pumping through diversion records. Observation wells and pumping wells are different populations and are never conflated. Click a well to chart its record.

Well map

Every monitored well with a location — hover for identity, click to chart its water-level record below. ● alluvial ● bedrock / confined (Denver Basin, High Plains, etc. — one-way, no human-timescale recharge) ● unclassified — marker size scales with the strength of the well's water-level trend (|Sen slope| in ft/decade — the same Mann-Kendall/Sen statistic as the trends table below); the smallest, faintest dots have too little record to test.

3D aquifer x-ray

Every aquifer unit as its own 3D head surface — alluvial water table on top, Denver Basin members (Dawson, Denver, Arapahoe, Laramie–Fox Hills) stacked beneath where measured — interpolated from measured water levels and animated through time. Units are never mixed; surfaces exist only inside each unit's well coverage (no extrapolation); thin epochs are suppressed with their reason shown. Vertical scale exaggerated for readability; z is head elevation in feet. Advisory — measured heads, not a calibrated model.

Water-table trends

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

Stream corridors — the surface connection

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.

LA PLATA RIVER AT HESPERUS, CO: 4 alluvial well(s) nearby

LA PLATA RIVER AT THE COLORADO-NEW MEXICO STATELINE: 1 alluvial well(s) nearby

ENTERPRISE DITCH AT THE COLORADO-NEW MEXICO STATELINE: 1 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.

9 reservoir(s) with 600 storage measurement(s), 1950–2011. Basin storage as of 2010-10-31 (the record's own end — reservoir records publish ~annually): 358 AF across 2 reservoir(s). 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?

Each reservoir drawn as a vessel: bubble size ∝ its record-high storage, fill level = 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 of its own record high otherwise (a wrong capacity would be worse than an honest record high, so only confident joins upgrade). Hover for numbers, click to chart its history below the map. A dashed teal ring marks reservoirs reporting live DWR telemetry — their fill reflects yesterday's storage, drawn as a dotted tail on charts and treated as provisional until the next verified HydroBase snapshot supersedes it. ● <25% ● 25–60% ● 60–90% ● >90%

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 reservoir to chart its full storage history.

Reservoir	Last recorded storage (AF)	As of
▸ RED MESA WARD RESERVOIR (3303522)	272	2010-10-31
▸ TAYLOR RESERVOIR (3303523)	86	2010-10-31
▸ LAPP NORTH RES SYSTEM (3303525)	0	1980-10-31
▸ JOHN F REIT DITCH (3300558)	0	1950-09-01
▸ FELLERS RESERVOIR (3303524)	0	1980-10-31
▸ LAPP HOME RES SYSTEM (3303526)	0	1980-10-31
▸ LAPP-DAVIS RES SYSTEM (3303527)	0	1980-10-31
▸ LAPP RANCH S STK RES SYS (3303528)	0	1980-10-31

Decrees, seniority, and administrative calls connected to this basin's flow network. Advisory reading aids on public DWR data — not administrative or legal conclusions. Rights on file: 447 across 364 structure(s); 34 structure(s) carry 0 court-case references.

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

WELBORN-SENA DITCH (3300573) (1915-05-27, 0.5 cfs decreed): last active 1968 — 57 years idle
WILLOW CREEK DITCH (3300521) (1882-08-15, 0.5 cfs decreed): last active 1970 — 55 years idle
HUBBS DITCH NO 2 (3300580) (1923-06-01, 2.0 cfs decreed): last active 1970 — 55 years idle
HUBBS NO 3 DITCH (3300581) (1923-07-01, 1.0 cfs decreed): last active 1970 — 55 years idle
MCGUIRE DITCH (3300524) (1887-07-01, 1.0 cfs decreed): last active 1980 — 45 years idle
WALKER DITCH (3300584) (1932-12-31, 1.0 cfs decreed): last active 1980 — 45 years idle
GREER DITCH (3300626) (1910-12-31, 0.8 cfs decreed): last active 1980 — 45 years idle
NARANJO DITCH (3300537) (1899-06-10, 1.3 cfs decreed): last active 1982 — 43 years idle
ENO SEEPAGE DITCH (3300570) (1912-06-17, 2.0 cfs decreed): last active 1984 — 41 years idle
ISGAR IRRIGATION SYSTEM (3300616) (1925-12-31, 3.0 cfs decreed): last active 1985 — 40 years idle

Compliance screens (30 advisory flags)

Screened 64 of 364 structures with rights (71 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.

TOWNSITE DITCH (3300551): Observed p99 daily rate 20.0 cfs (max 30.3) exceeds total decreed absolute 15.5 cfs across 19866 recorded day(s).
CAVINESS DITCH (3300505): Observed p99 daily rate 9.1 cfs (max 16.6) exceeds total decreed absolute 4.0 cfs across 7987 recorded day(s).
SPONSEL AND MYERS DITCH (3300514): Observed p99 daily rate 9.0 cfs (max 13.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 2.0 cfs across 7669 recorded day(s).
GH DITCH (3300669): Observed p99 daily rate 7.0 cfs (max 7.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 0.5 cfs across 2048 recorded day(s).
AMMONS DITCH (3300518): Observed p99 daily rate 6.7 cfs (max 108.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 6.0 cfs across 26144 recorded day(s).
ENTERPRISE ENLARGEMENT D (3300540): Observed p99 daily rate 5.4 cfs (max 11.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 2.6 cfs across 43455 recorded day(s).
NEW SPONSEL DITCH (3300506): Observed p99 daily rate 4.9 cfs (max 8.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 2.5 cfs across 9920 recorded day(s).
UPPER DAVIS DITCH (3300541): Observed p99 daily rate 4.5 cfs (max 4.5) exceeds total decreed absolute 1.0 cfs across 3606 recorded day(s).
WHITE-ROUX AND OWENS D (3300539): Observed p99 daily rate 3.5 cfs (max 12.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 1.0 cfs across 11421 recorded day(s).
MORGAN AND STAMBAUGH D (3300546): Observed p99 daily rate 3.5 cfs (max 4.2) exceeds total decreed absolute 2.5 cfs across 9079 recorded day(s).

Seniority (top structures by decreed rate)

Structure	Senior priority date	Rights	Decreed abs (cfs)	Conditional?
RED MESA WARD RES SUPPLY (3300563)	1905-04-30	1	120.0	—
H H DITCH (3300536)	1899-05-13	7	85.0	yes
TREANOR DITCH (3300549)	1904-05-01	4	67.0	yes
LA PLATA R & CHERRY CR D (3300508)	1890-06-02	4	41.2	—
BIG STICK DITCH (3300554)	1890-06-02	4	40.0	—
SLADE DITCH (3300542)	1901-03-25	3	36.9	yes
JOSEPH FREED DITCH (3300547)	1904-01-02	6	30.9	yes
PINE RIDGE DITCH (3300533)	1899-02-18	3	28.0	yes
HAY GULCH DITCH (3300504)	1888-02-08	6	19.9	yes
TOWNSITE DITCH (3300551)	1906-05-03	2	15.5	yes
WARREN-VOSBURGH DITCH (3300550)	1898-05-17	6	13.2	yes
SOONER VALLEY DITCH (3300535)	1899-05-07	4	12.0	—
REVIVAL DITCH (3300548)	1895-07-06	5	10.9	yes
LA PLATA RIVER MIN FLOW (3301905)	1984-07-13	1	9.0	—
LA PLATA IRG DITCH (3300501)	1880-06-01	5	8.0	—

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

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.