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BARR LAKE

Structure dossier · WDID 0203837 · RESERVOIR · SOUTH PLATTE RIVER · DWR record

Barr Lake 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 2026-10-14 19:58 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.

Who owns it

DWR’s own records name no owner for a ditch, reservoir or well, so this comes from the source shown and can be out of date. Organisations only: a private landowner’s name is never listed.

The record and the river

Where this structure is measured

GageFlowing nowRecordHow we know
BARR LAKE 0203837A — — named for this WDID

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.

In short

BARR LAKE holds 15 decreed rights on SOUTH PLATTE RIVER. No call currently reaches it that we can lawfully attribute, so none of its rights are being curtailed by one. 7 further calls state no district and sit outside this one, so they are counted here rather than assumed either way. In a median year over its last 15 recorded years it diverts 4,055 acre-feet. It was a party to 13 court cases that also touched 34 other structures.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (6 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.

Current administration

● In priority — no active call senior to this structure's rights affects its district (19 active call(s) checked).

7 further calls state no district and sit outside this one, so they are counted here rather than assumed either way.

Which of its rights are out of priority?

No active call verifiably reaches this structure (19 active call(s) checked), so none of its 15 rights is administratively curtailed today. (7 call(s) state no district and sit outside this one — not judged, not assumed.) In the 5 past years most like this one (2020, 2021, 2018, 2019, 2024), 3 of the rights shown below were out at least one week in at least one analog year.

Right (priority)NowAnalog years outMajority out by
1870-10-25 7603 — 0 of 5 —
1871-09-15 7928 — 0 of 5 —
1874-11-10 9080 — 0 of 5 —
… 9 more rights between these …
2016-12-15 60980 — 5 of 5 2026-10-02
2017-11-30 61330 — 5 of 5 2026-10-02
2016-04-19 61727 — 5 of 5 2026-10-02
How this table is built, and what it is not

“Now” compares each right's admin number with today's most senior applicable active call. The outlook uses flows at TU RECHARGE AREA INFLOW around 2026-10-02 (the newest reading on file) — currently 0% of that gage's own median for this window — to pick the 5 most similar past years with complete administration records (2011–2026). Only calls that verifiably apply count: DWR's own district statements in the call's set comments, a caller located in this district, or — on the same stream, where DWR records both stream miles (measured from the mouth) — a caller DOWNSTREAM of this structure. An upstream senior cannot demand water this diversion never deprives it of. Calls that state nothing and sit elsewhere are counted as unjudged rather than assumed, which also means the verified record is shorter than the raw one: early calls rarely state districts. For each week it finds the most senior call then in force; a right is out in that week exactly when that call is senior to it, which is why one line prices every right and juniors can be out while seniors keep diverting. “Majority out by” is the first week out in more than half the analog years. A frequency among named historical years, not a probability from a model, and not a forecast of what the division engineer will do. It says how often years whose flow resembled this one were under a call senior to this right in a given week. Snowpack, storage, and the actual administrative decisions of a given season are not modelled. Check the analog years listed: if they do not resemble this year to you, the outlook does not either.

Where it sits in line

Priority 1870-10-25 — 345th most senior of the 21886 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: GILCREST RESERVOIR (1870-10-25). Immediately behind: KING SPRING WELL 2 (1870-12-03).

On MAINSTEM at river mile 130.4, it is 803rd of 890 down the reach. Immediately upstream: NERES CNL. Immediately downstream: BRIGHTON SEWER.

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 (17)

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 13CW3026, 16CW3195
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 13CW3026, 16CW3195
10120.00000 1877-09-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 5.42 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 13CW3026, 16CW3195
13108.00000 1885-11-201893-07-08 11081.25 AF 0.0 — Irrigation, Municipal +8 02CW0351, 15CW3012 +3
21562.00000 1909-01-131918-08-02 54941.26 AF 0.0 — Irrigation, Municipal +8 03CW0320, 02CW0403 +3
45655.45437 1974-05-271975-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 2.92 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 13CW3026, 16CW3195
55882.55667 2002-05-302003-12-31 14212.3 AF 787.7 AF — Irrigation, Municipal +7 02CW0403, 15CW3065
58132.00000 2009-02-272009-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 5.0 cfs Municipal 03CW0320
59068.00000 2011-09-212011-12-31 3281.6 AF 5718.4 AF — Municipal, Augmentation +2 11CW0280, 16CW3196 +1
60264.00000 2014-12-302014-12-31 0.0 AF 9000.0 AF — Municipal, Augmentation +2 14CW3164, 16CW3196
60739.00000 2016-04-182016-12-31 0.0 AF 2805.0 AF — Storage, Irrigation 16CW3052
60739.00000 2016-04-182016-12-31 0.0 cfs 12.0 cfs — Storage, Irrigation 16CW3052
60980.00000 2016-12-152016-12-31 0.0 AF 0.0 1360.0 AF Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3195, 16CW3196
60980.00000 2016-12-152016-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 456.0 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3195, 16CW3196
61330.00000 2017-11-302016-12-31 0.0 AF 3000.0 AF — Municipal, Augmentation +1 16CW3195
61726.60740 2016-04-192019-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 254.2 cfs Storage, Irrigation +7 19CW3062

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.

How often is it out of priority?

Across the 11 seasons whose call record is complete enough to judge this structure (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026), week by week from April.

most senior right · admin 7603.00000 · peaks at 1 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
middle right · admin 55882.55667 · peaks at 10 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
most junior right · admin 61726.60740 · peaks at 10 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
Why only 11 seasons, and what the bars mean

Each bar is one week: how many of those seasons that right was out of priority under a call this site can lawfully attribute to this structure. Green is never, red is every season on record.

The short record is a property of DWR's data, not of the river. A call only counts against a structure when we can establish it applies — by the districts named in its set comments, or by stream mile on the same source. DWR did not begin stating affected districts routinely until about 2015: fewer than one call in ten can be judged before then, against roughly two in three since. A season we cannot judge is not a season without calls, so it is dropped rather than counted as quiet — 12 seasons dropped here.

This is a frequency over past seasons, not a forecast. It says nothing about what the division engineer will do this year.

Recorded use (last 15 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 4,055 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 4,611 AF — 114% of that, and 9th lowest of the 15 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)
2011 1,067 2nd lowest of 15 · 26% of median — 47 28.4
2012 1,282 3rd lowest of 15 · 32% of median — 57 26.2
2013 6,943 12th lowest of 15 · 171% of median — 344 54.4
2014 16,290 14th lowest of 15 · 402% of median — 344 209.1
2015 47,423 15th lowest of 15 · 1170% of median — 364 325.2
2016 4,055 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median — 366 44.6
2017 5,087 10th lowest of 15 · 126% of median — 299 56.0
2018 2,517 7th lowest of 15 · 62% of median — 261 18.4
2019 1,316 4th lowest of 15 · 32% of median — 220 23.2
2020 861 1st lowest of 15 · 21% of median — 179 18.6
2021 1,588 5th lowest of 15 · 39% of median — 260 21.9
2022 2,419 6th lowest of 15 · 60% of median — 206 46.4
2023 6,386 11th lowest of 15 · 158% of median — 365 115.0
2024 8,363 13th lowest of 15 · 206% of median — 366 181.4
2025 4,611 9th lowest of 15 · 114% of median — 304 69.1

How good is our record of it?

Grade A (9/10 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 17 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record current 4647 measured days, newest 336 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears)
record continuity patchy 59% of the irrigation seasons in 1988-2025 carry measured days
published-record stability stable no upstream revisions recorded against this structure

Recent watch events

  • 2026-09-05 — legal document update (case 16CW3196)

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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