Hydrohistorian
Log in

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

 ·  every download of this record carries its certificate id

RIGDEN STORAGE RESERVOIR

Structure dossier · WDID 0303326 · RESERVOIR · CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER · DWR record

Rigden Storage Reservoir is a reservoir 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 00:21 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

RIGDEN STORAGE RESERVOIR holds 5 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. 1 further call state no district and sit outside this one, so it is 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 11 recorded years it diverts 543 acre-feet. It was a party to 1 court cases that also touched 4 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).

● Fully called out — call at B H EATON DITCH (CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER, priority 1864-04-01).

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 1865-04-10 — 72nd 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: COY DITCH STATION (1865-04-10). Immediately behind: CACHE LA POUDRE RESERVOIR (1865-04-10).

On MAINSTEM at river mile 163.4, it is 814th of 818 down the reach. Immediately upstream: PARKWOOD LAKE. Immediately downstream: HUNTER OVERLOOK RESERVOIR.

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 (6)

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
5579.00000 1865-04-101882-04-11 0.0 AF 0.0 547.8 AF Municipal, Augmentation +1 14CW3176
5579.00000 1865-04-101882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 15.82 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 14CW3176
5904.00000 1866-03-011882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 2.5391 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 14CW3176
6354.00000 1867-05-251882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.6508 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 14CW3176
6757.00000 1868-07-011882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.932 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 14CW3176
59983.00000 2014-03-242014-12-31 1900.0 AF 1900.0 AF — Municipal 14CW3158

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 11 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 543 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 374 AF — 69% of that, and 3rd lowest of the 11 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)
2015 2,473 11th lowest of 11 · 455% of median 112 206 55.9
2016 630 7th lowest of 11 · 116% of median 888 198 12.5
2017 635 8th lowest of 11 · 117% of median 714 53 30.2
2018 790 9th lowest of 11 · 146% of median 200 45 10.3
2019 150 1st lowest of 11 · 28% of median 307 57 13.9
2020 431 4th lowest of 11 · 79% of median 666 115 6.0
2021 181 2nd lowest of 11 · 33% of median 758 6 29.6
2022 1,137 10th lowest of 11 · 209% of median 121 155 24.6
2023 543 6th lowest of 11 · 100% of median 619 109 38.5
2024 489 5th lowest of 11 · 90% of median 205 107 20.0
2025 374 3rd lowest of 11 · 69% of median 12 189 5.0

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 6 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record current 1240 measured days, newest 331 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears)
record continuity patchy 55% of the irrigation seasons in 2015-2025 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.