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BIG BEND DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 0200827 · DITCH · SOUTH PLATTE RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 02:55 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (0576005) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.
Where it sits
Location as DWR records it. Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.
Current administration
● Junior rights called out — call at LOWER LATHAM DITCH (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1877-11-14).
● Junior rights called out — call at HARMONY DITCH 1 (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1897-05-02).
● Junior rights called out — call at SOUTH PLATTE RIVER COMPACT (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1897-06-13).
● Junior rights called out — call at LOWER PLATTE BEAVER D (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1888-04-14).
Which of its rights are out of priority?
Not computable for this structure: this structure is not on the modelled flow network, so no reference gage can honestly stand in for it.
Where it sits in line
Priority 1873-09-26 — 435th most senior of the 21881 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: 0203954 (1873-09-15). Immediately behind: UNION DITCH (1873-09-26).
Decreed rights (3)
| 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. | Units | UsesWhat the court said this water may be used for -- irrigation, municipal supply, augmentation and so on. | Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8670.0 | 1873-09-26 | 1883-04-28 | 3.48 | 0.0 | C | IRR | |
| 60995.0 | 2016-12-30 | 2016-12-31 | 120.0 | 0.0 | A | IRRWLD | |
| 60995.0 | 2016-12-30 | 2016-12-31 | 3.48 | 0.0 | C | IRRWLD |
Legal record & documents
11 decreed actions on record across
7 court cases:
24CW3042, 16CW3199, W7639, W0188, CA6009, CA45608, 82CW0486.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
24CW3042 | 1 | 2016-12-31 | S |
16CW3199 | 1 | 2016-12-31 | S |
W7639 | 1 | 1883-04-28 | O |
W0188 | 2 | 1883-04-28 | O |
CA6009 | 1 | 1883-04-28 | O |
CA45608 | 2 | 1883-04-28 | O |
82CW0486 | 3 | 1883-04-28 | O |
DWR's own records for this structure: net amounts · transactions & adjudication history · scanned decrees (search a case number there for the imaged document). On this site: the district's full legal picture →
Recorded use (last 15 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 231 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 122 AF — 53% of that, and 3rd lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.
| Year | Diverted (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 record | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | 1,238 | 15th lowest of 15 · 536% of median | 196 | 6.0 |
| 1967 | 863 | 14th lowest of 15 · 374% of median | 121 | 7.0 |
| 1968 | 740 | 13th lowest of 15 · 320% of median | 140 | 5.0 |
| 1969 | 22 | 1st lowest of 15 · 10% of median | 10 | 2.0 |
| 2015 | 231 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 67 | 6.1 |
| 2016 | 618 | 12th lowest of 15 · 268% of median | 100 | 6.2 |
| 2017 | 400 | 11th lowest of 15 · 173% of median | 77 | 6.0 |
| 2018 | 376 | 10th lowest of 15 · 163% of median | 105 | 2.5 |
| 2019 | 175 | 6th lowest of 15 · 76% of median | 125 | 1.8 |
| 2020 | 322 | 9th lowest of 15 · 139% of median | 131 | 1.5 |
| 2021 | 135 | 4th lowest of 15 · 58% of median | 58 | 1.9 |
| 2022 | 206 | 7th lowest of 15 · 89% of median | 179 | 1.7 |
| 2023 | 108 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 47% of median | 365 | 1.8 |
| 2024 | 162 | 5th lowest of 15 · 70% of median | 366 | 2.6 |
| 2025 | 122 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 53% of median | 304 | 2.1 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-15 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.002).
How good is our record of it?
Grade B (7/10 points) — the components below are the finding; the letter alone is not.
The rubric, component by component
| Check | State | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| identity | complete | name, type, and water source all on file |
| decreed rights | on file | 3 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 4700 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 29% of the irrigation seasons in 1950-2025 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.