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70 RANCH STORAGE RESERVOIR

Structure dossier · WDID 0103028 · RESERVOIR · SOUTH PLATTE RIVER · DWR record

70 Ranch Storage Reservoir is a reservoir on South Platte River in Colorado. This page is its public record: the water it has a right to, whether it may take it today, and its history, compiled from the Colorado Division of Water Resources.

Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR structure ↗ Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR diversion records ↗ Source Our computation, scored against a reference · scored against DWR's call analysis, see /methods

Where this page's figures come from

Generated 2026-10-17 23:05 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260928 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (dd58e60) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.

Where this structure is measured

GageFlowing nowRecordHow we know
70 RANCH RESERVOIR OUTLET 70ROUTCO 0.0 cfs 2019–2026, 2,481 days DWR telemetry mapping

A green link is DWR's own: either its telemetry inventory maps this WDID to that station, or the station is named for this WDID (0700553 → 0700553A). An amber one is ours — the station sits within 250 m and shares a distinctive word with this structure's name, which is a strong hint rather than a DWR statement that this gage meters this structure. Wrong? Tell us.

Flowing now

0.0 cfs as of 2026-10-17 20:30 (2.6 h ago)

Zero is a real reading: the gage is reporting, and it says this structure is not diverting right now.

Provisional 15-minute telemetry from 70ROUTCO ↗ (70 RANCH RESERVOIR OUTLET). Raw, not the approved record — it is never merged into the diversion history below. DWR publishes the official diversion record after the water year closes and is approved, which is why that record ends months back while this reads minutes ago.

In short

70 RANCH STORAGE RESERVOIR holds 9 decreed rights on SOUTH PLATTE RIVER. A call at PREWITT INLET CANAL on SOUTH PLATTE RIVER (1936-01-13) currently reaches it: junior rights called out. 3 further calls state no district and sit outside this one, so they are counted here rather than assumed either way. That is today's position; the weeks ahead cannot be projected for it: no administrative call record for this basin. In a median year over its last 7 recorded years it diverts 3,202 acre-feet. It was a party to 3 court cases that also touched 6 other structures.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (8 checked). The detail, with its method, is in the cards below.

Download this structure

Everything on this page as data you can work with — and a README that makes it citable: the HydroBase snapshot it was built from, the build commit, what every column means, the method behind each derived figure, and that method's stated limits.

⇩ Full record (.zip) Print / save as PDF

Or one table at a time: rights.csv · annual_use.csv · curtailment_now.csv · court_cases.csv · co_parties.csv · call_climatology.csv

What is in the bundle
  • rights.csv — every decreed right, most senior first, with admin numbers, dates, amounts, uses and case numbers.
  • annual_use.csv — recorded diversion by year, with releases accounted separately.
  • curtailment_now.csv — each right's current priority status and how often it was out across analog years.
  • court_cases.csv — the cases attached to its rights.
  • co_parties.csv — the other structures that were parties to those cases. Not available anywhere else.
  • call_climatology.csv — how often each right has been out of priority by week of season, with confidence intervals and the seasons the record could actually judge.
  • README.txt — provenance, methods, limits, disclaimer, and links back to DWR's own records for verification.

Where it sits

Location as DWR records it (storage). Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.

Dam safety

Dam 70 RANCH (completed 2019)
Hazard class Low
Condition at last inspection Satisfactory (2025-04-21)
Storage restriction None on file
Normal storage 5,496 AF
Physical status Active
Emergency action plan Yes

Source: DWR Dam Safety’s jurisdictional-dam inventory (damsafety/damsafetydaminfojd), refreshed weekly. DWR’s record for this dam carries no WDID and no matched NID id, so it is joined by name and position: “70 RANCH” 0.365 mi away. More than half of Colorado’s jurisdictional dams can be reached no other way; judge the match before relying on it. Hazard class describes the consequence of failure, not the likelihood of it. DWR’s dam record.

Current administration

● Junior rights called out — call at PREWITT INLET CANAL (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1936-01-13).

Which of its rights are out of priority?

The outlook for the weeks ahead is not computable for this structure: no administrative call record for this basin. Today’s position is a separate question, and it is answered in Current administration above — that screen reads the district’s active calls and needs no reference gage.

Where it sits in line

Priority 1870-10-25 — 10th most senior of the 7708 structures with decreed rights in this water districtDWR's administrative subdivision of a river basin; the unit calls are usually stated in..

Under prior appropriationColorado's rule for sharing water: first in time, first in right. Age decides, not proximity or need., everything ahead of it in this line is satisfied in full before it receives any water. Immediately ahead: CORNISH PLAINS RES (1870-10-25). Immediately behind: DEUEL SNYDER CANAL (1871-04-02).

On MAINSTEM at river mile 106.3, it is 168th of 384 down the reach. Immediately upstream: LOWER LATHAM TAIL TO EMPIRE RETURN. Immediately downstream: LOWER LATHAM END OF DITCH RETURN.

Position on the modelled network, not a claim about whose water this is — a stream carries water from many rights at once, and diverted water returns to it.

Decreed rights (11)

Admin noDWR's numeric encoding of a water right's seniority. Smaller is more senior; the integer part counts days from 1849-12-31 to the date that ranks the right. AppropriatedWhen water was first put to beneficial use. It sets seniority unless a prior adjudication date is later. AdjudicatedWhen the water court confirmed the right. A use decreed in 1975 was not a decreed use in 1955, however old the appropriation is. AbsoluteA right actually put to use, as opposed to conditional -- a placeholder for a use not yet made. ConditionalA right reserving a place in line for a use not yet made; it must be diligently pursued or it lapses. Alt-pointAn absolute amount decreed at another structure that may be diverted here instead -- an alternate point of diversion or an exchange. DWR calls this the APEX amount; a right showing 0.0 absolute but an alt-point amount is exercised here under another structure's decree. Decreed forWhat the court said this water may be used for -- irrigation, municipal supply, augmentation and so on.Case
7603.00000 1870-10-251882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 4.92 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3195, 13CW3026
7928.00000 1871-09-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 7.62 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 13CW3026, 16CW3195
9080.00000 1874-11-101882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 8.25 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3195, 13CW3026
10120.00000 1877-09-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 5.42 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3195, 13CW3026
45655.45437 1974-05-271975-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 2.92 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3195, 13CW3026
59899.00000 2013-12-302013-12-31 0.0 AF 12000.0 AF — Municipal, Augmentation +3 16CW3195, 16CW3196 +2
59899.00000 2013-12-302013-12-31 0.0 cfs 200.0 cfs — Municipal, Augmentation +3 16CW3195, 16CW3196 +2
60662.00000 2016-02-012016-12-31 0.0 AF 6000.0 AF — Irrigation, Municipal +5 16CW3059
60662.00000 2016-02-012016-12-31 0.0 cfs 100.0 cfs — Irrigation, Municipal +5 16CW3059
60750.00000 2016-04-292016-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 4.0 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +5 16CW3059
60980.00000 2016-12-152016-12-31 0.0 AF 0.0 10.0 AF Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3196

Amounts marked cfs are flow rates; AF are stored volumes (storage rights are decreed in acre-feet). An absolute amount of 0.0 beside an alt-point amount is not a dead right: the water is decreed at another structure, and that row records permission to divert it here instead (an alternate point or exchange). A case listing several numbers reflects the original decree plus later change cases.

Recorded use (last 7 years on record)

Years far under the decreed amount? That gap has a name — paper water vs. wet water, explained on this structure.

In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 3,202 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 1,364 AF — 43% of that, and 2nd lowest of the 7 years with a recorded volume.

This structure records both diversions and reservoir releases — they are separate water movements and are accounted separately below.

YearDiverted (AFA volume: one acre covered a foot deep, about 326,000 gallons -- roughly a suburban household's outdoor use for a year.)Compared with its own recordReleased (AF)Days recordedPeak (cfs)
2019 3,264 5th lowest of 7 · 102% of median — 114 37.4
2020 3,698 6th lowest of 7 · 116% of median 1,234 203 25.1
2021 3,202 4th lowest of 7 · 100% of median 3,516 185 25.1
2022 1,659 3rd lowest of 7 · 52% of median 1,255 129 17.2
2023 4,665 7th lowest of 7 · 146% of median 435 262 67.0
2024 980 1st lowest of 7 · 31% of median 139 366 28.9
2025 1,364 2nd lowest of 7 · 43% of median 423 304 24.6

How good is our record of it?

Grade A (10/10 points) — the components below are the finding; the letter alone is not.

The rubric, component by component
CheckStateDetail
identity complete name, type, and water source all on file
decreed rights on file 11 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record current 1563 measured days, newest 331 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears)
record continuity continuous 100% of the irrigation seasons in 2019-2025 carry measured days
published-record stability stable no upstream revisions recorded against this structure

Advisory reading aid on public data — not an administrative or legal conclusion, not a title opinion, and not a substitute for DWR administration or an engineer's analysis. Methodology review status is disclosed at hydrohistorian's basin pages.

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