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SERFER RESERVOIR

Structure dossier · WDID 0303327 · RESERVOIR · CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER · DWR record

Serfer 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 2026-10-13 20:46 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

SERFER RESERVOIR holds 7 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: fully 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 3 recorded years it diverts 32 acre-feet. It was a party to 2 court cases that also touched 8 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

● Fully 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 1870-10-25 — 107th 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: NEW CACHE EATON DRAW DIVERSION (1870-10-25). Immediately behind: BONNER SPRING WELL (1870-12-31).

On MAINSTEM at river mile 133.8, it is 616th of 818 down the reach. Immediately upstream: SERFER PIT PUMP STATION. Immediately downstream: THREE ACRE LAKE.

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 (8)

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 13CW3026, 16CW3195
60980.00000 2016-12-152016-12-31 0.0 AF 20.0 AF — Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3196
61330.00000 2017-11-302016-12-31 0.0 AF 272.0 AF — Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3195
61330.00000 2017-11-302016-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 120.0 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +2 16CW3195

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 4 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 32 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2023, came in at 119 AF — 372% of that, and 3rd lowest of the 3 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 18 1st lowest of 3 · 56% of median — 7 1.5
2020 — no recorded volume 18 0 —
2022 32 2nd lowest of 3 · 100% of median — 14 1.2
2023 119 3rd lowest of 3 · 372% of median — 13 5.0

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 8 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record fragment 34 measured day(s) on file (under 180 -- a season, not a history)
record continuity unknown record too short to assess continuity (needs 2+ years of span and 180+ 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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