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ELDER RES

Structure dossier · WDID 0303729 · RESERVOIR · CACHE LA POUDRE RIVER · DWR record

Elder Res 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 19:48 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DWR’s own records name no owner for a ditch, reservoir or well, so this comes from the source shown and can be out of date.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

In short

ELDER RES 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. 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: no administrative call record for this basin. In a median year over its last 9 recorded years it diverts 190 acre-feet.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (7 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.

Dam safety

Dam ELDER (completed 1904)
Hazard class High
Condition at last inspection Satisfactory (2026-05-21)
Storage restriction None on file
Normal storage 666 AF
Physical status Active
Emergency action plan Yes

Source: DWR Dam Safety’s jurisdictional-dam inventory (damsafety/damsafetydaminfojd), refreshed weekly. Joined on this structure’s own WDID as DWR records it on the dam. Hazard class describes the consequence of failure, not the likelihood of it. DWR’s dam record.

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: 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 1861-06-10 — 42nd 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: RES NO 8 (1861-06-10). Immediately behind: CURTIS LAKE RES (1861-06-10).

On MAINSTEM at river mile 118.4, it is 469th of 818 down the reach. Immediately upstream: LAKSHORE FARMS DITCH. Immediately downstream: SACKSCHEWSKI RES 1.

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 (5)

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
7599.00000 1870-10-211882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.49 cfs Municipal 08CW0277
8659.00000 1873-09-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.25 cfs Municipal 08CW0277
10788.00000 1879-07-151882-04-11 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.31 cfs Municipal 08CW0277
19914.00000 1904-07-101906-06-15 1500.0 AF 0.0 — Irrigation 84CW0204, CA1591

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 12 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 190 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2011, came in at 52 AF — 27% of that, and 2nd lowest of the 9 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)
1997 — no recorded volume 161 0 —
1998 — no recorded volume 157 0 —
1999 721 9th lowest of 9 · 380% of median 648 15 25.0
2000 94 4th lowest of 9 · 50% of median — 3 25.0
2004 492 8th lowest of 9 · 259% of median — 31 8.4
2005 35 1st lowest of 9 · 18% of median 51 63 0.3
2006 — no recorded volume 241 0 —
2007 201 6th lowest of 9 · 106% of median 64 92 13.6
2008 61 3rd lowest of 9 · 32% of median 217 32 1.0
2009 190 5th lowest of 9 · 100% of median 241 62 13.1
2010 474 7th lowest of 9 · 250% of median 440 150 5.1
2011 52 2nd lowest of 9 · 27% of median 99 6 5.5

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 5 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record stale 454 measured days, but newest is 5475 day(s) before the data's end (target 450)
record continuity sparse 15% of the irrigation seasons in 1997-2011 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.

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