Hydrohistorian
Log in

← My Water  ·  All reservoirs in this district  ·  Print / save as PDF  · 

 ·  every download of this record carries its certificate id

OVERLAND POND RESERVOIR SYSTEM

Structure dossier · WDID 0303312 · RESERVOIR SYSTEM · CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER · DWR record

Overland Pond Reservoir System is a water structure on Cache La Poudre 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 13:33 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.

The record and the river

In short

OVERLAND POND RESERVOIR SYSTEM holds 14 decreed rights on CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER. A call at CANAL 3 DITCH on CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER (1870-04-01), and 2 others currently reaches it: junior rights called out. 2 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: this structure is not on the modelled flow network, so no reference gage can honestly stand in for it. In a median year over its last 13 recorded years it diverts 388 acre-feet. It was a party to 3 court cases that also touched 10 other structures.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (9 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

● Junior rights called out — call at CANAL 3 DITCH (CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER, priority 1870-04-01).

● Junior rights called out — call at OGILVY DITCH (CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER, priority 1884-04-10).

● Junior rights called out — call at B H EATON DITCH (CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER, priority 1866-03-01).

Which of its rights are out of priority?

The outlook for the weeks ahead is not computable for this structure: this structure is not on the modelled flow network, so no reference gage can honestly stand in for it. 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 1861-06-10 — 34th most senior of the 2964 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: DRY CREEK DITCH (1861-06-10). Immediately behind: NORTH POUDRE RES 1 (1861-06-10).

Decreed rights (14)

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
4179.00000 1861-06-101882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.21 cfs Municipal 08CW0277
4443.00000 1862-03-011882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.139 cfs Storage, Irrigation +8 03CW0421, 17CW3057 +1
5372.00000 1864-09-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.179 cfs Storage, Irrigation +8 18CW3076, 17CW3057 +1
5579.00000 1865-04-101882-04-11 0.0 AF 0.0 169.2 AF Municipal 09CW0282, 13CW3166
6649.00000 1868-03-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.06 cfs Storage, Irrigation +8 03CW0421, 17CW3057 +1
7599.00000 1870-10-211882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.49 cfs Municipal 08CW0277
8480.00000 1873-03-201882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.052 cfs Storage, Irrigation +8 18CW3076, 17CW3057 +1
8659.00000 1873-09-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.25 cfs Municipal 08CW0277
10318.00000 1878-04-011882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.093 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +8 03CW0421, 17CW3057 +1
10788.00000 1879-07-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.31 cfs Municipal 08CW0277
11438.00000 1881-04-251882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 5.98 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +8 18CW3076, 17CW3057 +1
23646.00000 1914-09-281945-12-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 3.183 cfs All beneficial uses 03CW0421
54274.00000 1998-08-061998-12-31 0.0 AF 10962.0 AF — Irrigation, Municipal +4 98CW0435
54786.54274 1998-08-062000-12-31 253.8 AF 10708.2 AF — Irrigation, Municipal +7 19CW3239, 00CW0251

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 13 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 388 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 8 AF — 2% of that, and 1st lowest of the 13 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)
2012 233 5th lowest of 13 · 60% of median — 19 23.0
2013 446 11th lowest of 13 · 115% of median — 69 5.8
2015 975 13th lowest of 13 · 251% of median — 110 19.7
2016 168 3rd lowest of 13 · 43% of median — 27 5.4
2017 432 10th lowest of 13 · 111% of median — 48 6.7
2018 92 2nd lowest of 13 · 24% of median 97 18 5.2
2019 191 4th lowest of 13 · 49% of median 101 20 5.7
2020 398 8th lowest of 13 · 103% of median 268 40 7.6
2021 342 6th lowest of 13 · 88% of median 82 42 10.7
2022 388 7th lowest of 13 · 100% of median 1,370 76 8.4
2023 960 12th lowest of 13 · 247% of median — 76 17.7
2024 412 9th lowest of 13 · 106% of median — 69 15.3
2025 8 1st lowest of 13 · 2% of median 239 69 4.0

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
CheckStateDetail
identity complete name, type, and water source all on file
decreed rights on file 14 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record present 683 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against)
record continuity sparse 24% of the irrigation seasons in 2012-2025 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.

Hydrohistorian is free, with no ads — one server and a lot of public records. If it earns its keep, you can help keep it running.