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BUTTE MILL DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 0600518 · DITCH · BOULDER CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:45 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (96d5528) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.
Where it sits
Location as DWR records it. Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.
Which of its rights are out of priority?
Not computable for this structure: no administrative call record for this basin.
Where it sits in line
Priority 1865-03-01 — 81st most senior of the 1867 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: 0600789 (1864-06-01). Immediately behind: 0600895 (1865-04-01).
On MAINSTEM at river mile 12.9, it is 18th of 78 down the reach. Immediately upstream: BASELINE RES. Immediately downstream: HAYDEN LAKE RES.
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 (1)
| 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. | Units | UsesWhat the court said this water may be used for -- irrigation, municipal supply, augmentation and so on. | Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5539.0 | 1865-03-01 | 1882-06-02 | 110.86 | 0.0 | C | IRR |
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
CA1308.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1308 | 1 | 1882-06-02 | O |
DWR's own records for this structure: net amounts · transactions & adjudication history · scanned decrees (search a case number there for the imaged document). On this site: the district's full legal picture →
Recorded use (last 15 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 1,171 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 2,030 AF — 173% of that, and 14th lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.
| Year | Diverted (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 record | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 1,171 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 111 | 9.6 |
| 2012 | 627 | 1st lowest of 15 · 54% of median | 66 | 8.1 |
| 2013 | 1,171 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 97 | 11.9 |
| 2014 | 939 | 5th lowest of 15 · 80% of median | 105 | 9.1 |
| 2015 | 888 | 4th lowest of 15 · 76% of median | 119 | 14.9 |
| 2016 | 794 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 68% of median | 141 | 9.8 |
| 2017 | 1,331 | 10th lowest of 15 · 114% of median | 126 | 9.4 |
| 2018 | 871 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 74% of median | 144 | 13.2 |
| 2019 | 1,082 | 6th lowest of 15 · 92% of median | 121 | 10.0 |
| 2020 | 1,697 | 11th lowest of 15 · 145% of median | 184 | 16.0 |
| 2021 | 1,151 | 7th lowest of 15 · 98% of median | 130 | 11.6 |
| 2022 | 1,995 | 13th lowest of 15 · 170% of median | 215 | 17.4 |
| 2023 | 1,929 | 12th lowest of 15 · 165% of median | 190 | 12.3 |
| 2024 | 2,246 | 15th lowest of 15 · 192% of median | 215 | 12.4 |
| 2025 | 2,030 | 14th lowest of 15 · 173% of median | 181 | 10.8 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is rising over its last 15 recorded years (+92 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.006).
Its reference gage, JONES DONNELLY DITCH OFF LEGGETT INLET: no clear flow trend.
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
| Check | State | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| identity | complete | name, type, and water source all on file |
| decreed rights | on file | 1 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | current | 7674 measured days, newest 285 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears) |
| record continuity | patchy | 47% of the irrigation seasons in 1950-2025 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.