Hydrohistorian
West Dolores Creek/Tribs. on the ground — the ditches, wells, reservoirs and gages of Water District 71 · clicktap anything for its record
The drilled-depth cells in view, as a table
Each row is one ~3-mile cell (0.04°): the median of the depths drillers filed for the wells spotted inside it, and how many wells that median stands on. Cells with fewer than five filed depths are left blank on the map and out of this table. This is the driller’s own number, filed once when the well was drilled; it says how deep wells here typically go, not where the water table is and not whether wells are getting deeper. Spotting is the file’s own, about a mile at best.
| Lat | Lon | Median drilled depth, ft | Wells with a depth |
|---|
Browse this district’s ditches, gages, reservoirs, wells and springs as a list.
The Dolores River is critically low for late June -- 6% of normal flow, its 7th-driest such week in 115 years of record. 17 calls stand against it right now; the most senior right calling dates to 1876. This year's runoff outlook, issued 2026-06-01, called for 24% of normal.
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 6 ranked gages are running at a median 20% of their own long-term norm for this window — 5 below a typical year, 1 at or above. Driest relative to its record: DOLORES RIVER NEAR SLICK ROCK, CO, ranking 1st lowest of 22 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 21:20 from 14 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 14 gages with enough record, 3 are trending down and 0 up, and 1 carries a detected shift. The clearest is Dolores River below McPhee Reservoir, its annual mean flow changing -37.39 cfs per decade (-43.6% of its median annual flow) over 40 years (p=0.0104). The other 11 show no clear signal either way.
Drought history, cost, and the four-century context moved to the Drought tab.
| Gage | Trend | Change / decade cfs · % of median annual flow | Significance | Years | Changepoint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
▸
Dolores River below McPhee Reservoir DOLBMCCO |
↓ decreasing | -37.39 cfs -43.6% | p=0.010 | 40 | ~2000 |
|
▸
Lost Canyon Creek near Dolores LOSDOLCO |
↓ decreasing | -3.88 cfs -35.3% | p=0.011 | 41 | — |
|
▸
Dolores River at Dolores DOLDOLCO |
↓ decreasing | -9.73 cfs -2.5% | p=0.050 | 112 | — |
11 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. 6 gage(s) and 58 structure(s) report in 2026, but structure reporting only reached half its modern level around ~1950. 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 | 1 | 0 |
| 1930s | 1 | 0 |
| 1940s | 3 | 0 |
| 1950s | 2 | 40 |
| 1960s | 2 | 40 |
| 1970s | 2 | 46 |
| 1980s | 4 | 56 |
| 1990s | 4 | 57 |
| 2000s | 5 | 57 |
| 2010s | 8 | 55 |
| 2020s | 8 | 58 |
Mass-balance (network closure) trend
Structure divrec-history backfill coverage as of the last check: 15% of 372 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 (706 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.
- DOLORES RIVER BELOW MCPHEE RESERVOIR: reach shifted from +191 cfs to +134 cfs summer mean (more losing, p=0.036, 42 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: 7 monitored well(s), water-table trends, stream corridors, and the advisory depletion screen.
Reservoirs now has its own tab: 10 reservoir(s), end-of-year storage back to 1950, click-to-chart histories.
Cross-gage pattern fingerprint
Over the 15-year window with full coverage (2012–2026), the dominant shared pattern across 3 gage(s) explains 61% 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.
- SILVEY DITCH (diversion): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- KING NO 2 DITCH (diversion): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- BRASHERS SPRING (return): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- WEGNER SPRING (return): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- SCHMIDT AUGMENTATION PON (diversion): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- FRANK ROBINSON DITCH (diversion): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- ROUBIDOUX DITCH (diversion): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- JUHL AND SILENCE PUMP (diversion): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- CHAPMAN DITCH (diversion): +1.1 cfs (2% of that reach's correction)
- EVANS DIVERSION (diversion): +1.1 cfs (2% 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 | 15% of schematic structures have data |
Independent check: PASS — 100.0000% agreement across 127,525 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 — 99.48% day-level agreement with USGS's own published records for the same gages, across 9 co-listed station(s) and 98,879 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.
14 gage(s) / 127,730 daily values (1895-10-01–2026-07-06); 124 structure(s) with diversion records; 279 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
40 water-level measurements across 7 monitored well(s) — 4 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.
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
10 reservoir(s) with 3,375 storage measurement(s), 1950–2026. Basin storage as of 2025-10-24 (the record's own end — reservoir records publish ~annually): 425 AF across 5 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) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ▸ MCPHEE RESERVOIR (7103614) | 277,391 | 2010-10-31 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ GROUNDHOG RESERVOIR (7103612) | 4,776 | 2011-10-14 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ SUMMIT RESERVOIR (7103619) | 240 | 2025-10-22 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ BIG PINE RESERVOIR (7103606) | 99 | 2025-10-22 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ LOST CANYON LAKE (7103613) | 34 | 2025-10-24 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ BUCK PASTURE RESERVOIR (7103607) | 27 | 2025-10-16 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ ETHEL BELMEAR RESERVOIR (7103610) | 25 | 2025-10-17 | — | — | dossier → |
| ▸ WILSON RESERVOIR (7103621) | 8 | 2011-10-27 | — | — | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Mesa | 11580 | 0.0 | — | — | — |
| El Diente Peak | 10210 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 4 (14.6 in) |
| Lizard Head Pass | 10190 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 5 (15.2 in) |
| Scotch Creek | 9160 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | March 18 (12.0 in) |
| Sharkstooth | 10730 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 12 (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 (1981–2026)
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 11 of the last 46 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 59% of median.
The snow never came: 1981, 1988, 1990, 1999, 2002, 2007, 2015, 2018, 2021, 2025, 2026. The snow left early: 1989.
Computed by this site from 5 SNOTEL sites’ full daily records (NRCS AWDB, back to 1981). 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 — Dolores R at Dolores
NRCS's final issue (2026-06-01) calls it even odds that at least 15 kAF arrives over 06-01 to 07-31 — 23% of a normal season; almost certainly at least 5, probably not more than 49. Our own record at this gage shows 10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10 | 15 | 29 | 49 | 64 | 10 |
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 20%, with a high bias of 7%, and the observed volume landed inside the stated 10–90% band 78% 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 (1981–2025)
Across 45 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 67% 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 71% of a normal season, against 97% 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 — McPhee Reservoir Inflow
NRCS's final issue (2026-06-01) calls it even odds that at least 16 kAF arrives over 06-01 to 07-31 — 24% of a normal season; almost certainly at least 8, probably not more than 53. New forecasts begin in January. How to read these numbers →
We test a record-based adjustment of the April benchmark at every graded point. Here it did not beat NRCS over 38 replayed seasons (22% typical miss unadjusted vs 25% adjusted), so none is shown — NRCS’s own forecast, unadjusted, is the best April benchmark available for this river. Why we test →
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 12 | 16 | 31 | 53 | 65 |
Drought
Right now
This is the 7th-driest week 27 in 115 years of record at DOLORES RIVER AT DOLORES (as of 2026-06-29; this week’s flow sits at the 6th percentile for the date). On this week’s US Drought Monitor, Montezuma County is 54% in D3 extreme drought (2026-09-01). The law agrees: the most senior active call leaves 99% of this district’s decreed flow rights junior to the calling right this week.
Every year since 1895, week by week
Each thin row is a year at DOLORES RIVER AT DOLORES; 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.
The Drought Monitor’s view since 2000
Mean share of area in each class across Dolores, Montezuma, San Miguel 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 2005 — 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 (4 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
| Drought | Span | Weeks | Trough percentile | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unnamed dry spell | 2024-01-01 → 2026-01-12 | 106 | 13th (2024-04-08) | 10 weeks |
| the 2020-22 drought | 2020-01-20 → 2022-03-07 | 111 | 12th (2021-03-29) | 52 weeks |
| the 2018 drought | 2018-02-05 → 2019-07-01 | 73 | 8th (2018-07-02) | 0 weeks |
| the 2012-13 drought | 2012-06-25 → 2013-11-25 | 74 | 6th (2013-03-04) | 0 weeks |
| unnamed dry spell | 2009-11-09 → 2010-07-12 | 35 | 17th (2010-02-15) | 23 weeks |
| the 2002 drought | 2002-03-04 → 2003-11-03 | 87 | 10th (2002-08-26) | 43 weeks |
| unnamed dry spell | 1989-10-09 → 1990-11-19 | 58 | 5th (1990-04-23) | 0 weeks |
| the 1977 drought | 1977-02-21 → 1978-05-01 | 62 | 4th (1977-07-11) | 3 weeks |
| unnamed dry spell | 1974-09-16 → 1975-07-21 | 44 | 25th (1975-02-24) | 0 weeks |
| the 1963-64 drought | 1963-10-07 → 1964-10-12 | 53 | 9th (1964-05-04) | 36 weeks |
| unnamed dry spell | 1960-12-19 → 1961-08-07 | 33 | 22nd (1961-03-06) | 10 weeks |
| unnamed dry spell | 1959-02-23 → 1960-01-18 | 47 | 15th (1959-07-27) | 91 weeks |
| the 1950s drought | 1956-09-24 → 1957-07-01 | 40 | 12th (1957-01-07) | 0 weeks |
| the 1950s drought | 1955-04-11 → 1955-09-26 | 24 | 25th (1955-05-30) | 91 weeks |
Detected mechanically: the 26-week smoothed percentile below the 30th for at least 20 weeks; recovered on regaining the 50th. 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 1991, federal crop insurance has paid $5,656,915 in drought-caused claims across Dolores, Montezuma, San Miguel counties — 18.4% of all insured crop losses there. The worst year was 2002 ($670,046).
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 (237 rights across 118 years of shared record), colored by that year’s wetness from the barcode above. Here the correlation is +0.08 — 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.
Legal
Decreed rights on this network run from 1879-05-31 to 2023-03-30. 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. 11 abandonment screens and 51 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: 363 across 279 structure(s); 85 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 | 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.
- BURCH AND LONGWILL DITCH (7100513) DWR↗ stopped 2025-09-14 (46+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- KEYSTONE DITCH (7100555) DWR↗ stopped 2025-09-14 (46+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- MONUMENT ROCK DITCH (7100572) DWR↗ stopped 2025-09-14 (47+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- GARBARINO NO 1 DITCH (7100535) DWR↗ stopped 2025-08-10 (82+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- KEYSTONE DITCH (7100555) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-20 (18+ days) — call at CONLEY DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- KNOBLOCK DITCH (7100558) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-20 (56+ days) — call at CONLEY DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- LINDSTROM DITCH (7100563) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-20 (35+ days) — call at CONLEY DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- MONUMENT ROCK DITCH (7100572) DWR↗ stopped 2025-07-20 (35+ days) — call at CONLEY DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- GARBARINO NO 2 DITCH (7100536) DWR↗ stopped 2025-06-08 (14+ days) — call at CARPENTER AND MITCHELL D curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- GARBARINO NO 1 DITCH (7100535) DWR↗ stopped 2024-09-30 (202+ days) — call at SPRING CREEK DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- KOENIG DITCH (7100559) DWR↗ stopped 2024-09-12 (264+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN DITCH curtailing 100% of its decreed rate [heuristic-strong]
- ILLINOIS DITCH (7100549) DWR↗ stopped 2024-09-08 (32+ days) — call at HENRY BOLEN 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DOLORES TUNNEL (7104675) DWR↗ | 1879-05-31 | 60.5% / 27.6% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| MCPHEE RESERVOIR INLET (7100569) DWR↗ | 1940-09-10 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| BEAVER DITCH (7100638) DWR↗ | 1929-10-24 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| LITTLE FISH CREEK FEEDER DITCH (7100727) DWR↗ | 1983-06-30 | 1.8% / 0.0% | 1.8% / 0.0% |
| SUMMIT DITCH (7100609) DWR↗ | 1913-06-14 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| TURKEY CREEK DITCH (7100618) DWR↗ | 1886-07-16 | 41.4% / 16.4% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| DOLORES MINIMUM FLOW (7100639) DWR↗ | 1975-05-01 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| MCPHEE POWER PLANT (7100673) DWR↗ | 1981-04-30 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| DOLORES RIVER (7101915) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| DOLORES RIVER (7101912) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| DOLORES RIVER (7101907) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
| WEST FORK DOLORES RIVER (7101921) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 2.3% / 0.0% | 2.3% / 0.0% |
Abandonment radar (11 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 ~1950 — idleness that begins before then may be unreported use, not nonuse (flagged † below).
- BUCK PASTURE RESERVOIR (7103607) DWR↗ (1963-07-01, 0.0 cfs decreed): last active 1969 — 40 years idle
- ETHEL BELMEAR RESERVOIR (7103610) DWR↗ (1944-07-01, 0.0 cfs decreed): last active 1969 — 40 years idle
- ROGERS PUMP DIVERSION (7100590) DWR↗ (1970-07-05, 1.0 cfs decreed): last active 1974 — 35 years idle
- LOST CANYON LAKE (7103613) DWR↗ (1970-07-05, 0.0 cfs decreed): last active 1974 — 35 years idle
- PAPOOSE CREEK PL NO 1 (7100577) DWR↗ (1893-12-31, 0.5 cfs decreed): last active 1978 — 31 years idle
- DOLORES HATCHERY PL NO 1 (7100524) DWR↗ (1948-03-01, 5.0 cfs decreed): last active 1979 — 30 years idle
- DOLORES WATER DIVR HGT (7100627) DWR↗ (1881-05-01, 11.5 cfs decreed): last active 1984 — 25 years idle
- SUCKLA PUMP SITE (7100607) DWR↗ (1935-06-03, 3.5 cfs decreed): last active 1985 — 24 years idle
- CHAPMAN DITCH (7100663) DWR↗ (1899-08-15, 0.2 cfs decreed): last active 1987 — 22 years idle
- JESSE LOVE DITCH (7100553) DWR↗ (1887-06-01, 6.0 cfs decreed): last active 1997 — 12 years idle
Compliance screens (51 advisory flags)
Screened 70 of 279 structures with rights (88 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.
- MCPHEE RESERVOIR INLET (7100569) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 1725.6 cfs (max 3535.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 585.0 cfs across 15666 recorded day(s).
- MCPHEE POWER PLANT (7100673) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 80.0 cfs (max 96.8) exceeds total decreed absolute 78.0 cfs across 25492 recorded day(s).
- DOLORES HATCHERY PL NO 1 (7100524) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 15.0 cfs (max 15.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 5.0 cfs across 2270 recorded day(s).
- MCEWEN DITCH (7100567) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 9.9 cfs (max 10.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 8.2 cfs across 10073 recorded day(s).
- KEYSTONE DITCH (7100555) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 9.2 cfs (max 9.3) exceeds total decreed absolute 4.1 cfs across 11628 recorded day(s).
- MORIARITY DITCH (7100573) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 9.0 cfs (max 12.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 6.5 cfs across 19978 recorded day(s).
- LEAVENSWORTH DITCH (7100562) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 8.6 cfs (max 8.6) exceeds total decreed absolute 3.0 cfs across 8186 recorded day(s).
- QUARRY NO 1 DITCH (7100582) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 8.4 cfs (max 9.0) exceeds total decreed absolute 6.5 cfs across 11430 recorded day(s).
- KING NO 1 DITCH (7100556) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 8.0 cfs (max 12.3) exceeds total decreed absolute 2.3 cfs across 2566 recorded day(s).
- HAMMOND AND CLARK DITCH (7100546) DWR↗: Observed p99 daily rate 7.9 cfs (max 9.3) exceeds total decreed absolute 7.6 cfs across 15578 recorded day(s).
Seniority (top structures by decreed rate)
| Structure | Senior priority date | Rights | Decreed abs (cfs) | Decreed abs (AF) | Conditional? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOLORES TUNNEL (7104675) DWR↗ | 1879-05-31 | 10 | 1186.9 | 0 | yes |
| MCPHEE RESERVOIR INLET (7100569) DWR↗ | 1940-09-10 | 1 | 585.0 | 0 | — |
| BEAVER DITCH (7100638) DWR↗ | 1929-10-24 | 1 | 150.0 | 0 | — |
| LITTLE FISH CREEK FEEDER DITCH (7100727) DWR↗ | 1983-06-30 | 1 | 150.0 | 0 | — |
| SUMMIT DITCH (7100609) DWR↗ | 1913-06-14 | 1 | 135.0 | 0 | — |
| TURKEY CREEK DITCH (7100618) DWR↗ | 1886-07-16 | 2 | 86.5 | 0 | — |
| DOLORES MINIMUM FLOW (7100639) DWR↗ | 1975-05-01 | 1 | 78.0 | 0 | — |
| MCPHEE POWER PLANT (7100673) DWR↗ | 1981-04-30 | 1 | 78.0 | 0 | — |
| DOLORES RIVER (7101915) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 1 | 50.0 | 0 | — |
| DOLORES RIVER (7101912) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 1 | 35.0 | 0 | — |
| DOLORES RIVER (7101907) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 1 | 20.0 | 0 | — |
| WEST FORK DOLORES RIVER (7101921) DWR↗ | 1984-07-13 | 1 | 17.0 | 0 | — |
| DOLORES HATCHERY PL NO 2 (7100525) DWR↗ | 1965-12-01 | 1 | 15.0 | 0 | — |
| BANKSTON DITCH (7100500) DWR↗ | 1949-08-01 | 1 | 12.0 | 0 | — |
| DOLORES WATER DIVR HGT (7100627) DWR↗ | 1881-05-01 | 4 | 11.5 | 0 | yes |
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 (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.
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… |
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.
Snowpack — no snow on the ground at 5 SNOTEL sites — normal for the date; the snow year begins in October. Runoff outlook — Dolores R at Dolores: even odds of at least 15 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 23% of a normal season, per NRCS, issued 2026-06-01 — the season’s final; new forecasts begin in January. Runoff outlook — McPhee Reservoir Inflow: even odds of at least 16 kAF over 06-01 to 07-31 — 24% 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Mesa | 11580 | 0.0 | — | — | — |
| El Diente Peak | 10210 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 4 (14.6 in) |
| Lizard Head Pass | 10190 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 5 (15.2 in) |
| Scotch Creek | 9160 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | March 18 (12.0 in) |
| Sharkstooth | 10730 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | April 12 (18.8 in) |
Dolores R at Dolores — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):
| 90% | 70% | 50% | 30% | 10% | Normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10 | 15 | 29 | 49 | 64 |
McPhee Reservoir Inflow — 06-01 to 07-31 volume, thousand acre-feet (chance the volume is AT LEAST this):
| 90% | 70% | 50% | 30% | 10% | Normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 12 | 16 | 31 | 53 | 65 |
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: 3 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 7 streams, 4 agree. Know this water? Tell us →
| Stream | This site routes it to | DWR routes it to |
|---|---|---|
| Groundhog Creek | the mainstem | Fish Creek |
| Fish Creek | the mainstem | West Dolores River |
| Fish Creek | the mainstem | Lost Canyon Creek |
Sizable streams DWR maps here that this network does not carry:
Big Gypsum Creek (21 mi) · Stoner Creek (18 mi) · Bear Creek (14 mi) · Glade Creek (12 mi) · House Creek (12 mi) · Canyon Creek (11 mi) · Bush Canyon (10 mi) · Taylor Creek (9 mi)