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ERIE LAKE RES

Structure dossier · WDID 0604194 · RESERVOIR · SOUTH BOULDER CREEK · DWR record · probably ERIE TOWN OF’s (matched on DWR’s contact or an EPA intake name; verify below)

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 08:45 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DWR’s own records name no owner for a ditch, reservoir or well, so this comes from the source shown and can be out of date.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

ERIE LAKE RES holds 1 decreed right on SOUTH BOULDER CREEK. A call at RURAL DITCH on BOULDER CREEK (1862-05-09), and 1 other currently reaches it: fully called out. 7 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 gage record for this year at this date, so there is nothing to find analogs for. In a median year over its last 15 recorded years it diverts 282 acre-feet.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (6 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

⚠ Under an active storage restriction from DWR’s Dam Safety branch.

The State Engineer limits what this dam may impound. DWR publishes no safe-storage figure for it. A low reading on this reservoir can be an order, not a drought; read any storage or fill figure on this page alongside it.

Dam ERIE (completed 1900)
Hazard class High
Condition at last inspection Unsatisfactory (2025-05-07)
Storage restriction Yes
Normal storage 306 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

● Fully called out — call at RURAL DITCH (BOULDER CREEK, priority 1862-05-09).

● Fully called out — call at HOWELL DITCH (BOULDER CREEK, priority 1859-12-01).

Which of its rights are out of priority?

The outlook for the weeks ahead is not computable for this structure: no gage record for this year at this date, so there is nothing to find analogs for. 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 1881-10-15 — 99th 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: 0605260 (1880-12-31). Immediately behind: KERR DITCH NO 1 (1861-04-15).

On SOUTH BOULDER CREEK at river mile 17.5, it is 46th of 59 down the reach. Immediately upstream: FUTHEY FARMS RES. Immediately downstream: MARFELL LAKE NO 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 (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. 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
11611.00000 1881-10-151907-03-13 239.0 AF 0.0 — Domestic CA4842

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.

How often is it out of priority?

Across the 11 seasons whose call record is complete enough to judge this structure (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026), week by week from April.

most senior right · admin 11611.00000 · peaks at 11 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep

Snow sets the clock here. In the driest third of snow years (3 seasons), 2 seasons stayed under call throughout and 0 ended free. In the middle third (5 seasons), the call settled in for the season around June 17 (June 17 to June 24 across those years); in 2 of them it never lifted at all. In the wettest third (3 seasons), the call settled in for the season around June 24; in 2 of them it never lifted at all.

Snow years ranked by the district’s April 1 snow-water percentile across 3 SNOTEL sites; 11 seasons carry both a snow reading and a judgeable call record. How the past played out, not a forecast.

Why only 11 seasons, and what the bars mean

Each bar is one week: how many of those seasons that right was out of priority under a call this site can lawfully attribute to this structure. Green is never, red is every season on record.

The short record is a property of DWR's data, not of the river. A call only counts against a structure when we can establish it applies — by the districts named in its set comments, or by stream mile on the same source. DWR did not begin stating affected districts routinely until about 2015: fewer than one call in ten can be judged before then, against roughly two in three since. A season we cannot judge is not a season without calls, so it is dropped rather than counted as quiet — 12 seasons dropped here.

This is a frequency over past seasons, not a forecast. It says nothing about what the division engineer will do this year.

Recorded use (last 15 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 282 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2014, came in at 238 AF — 84% of that, and 6th lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.

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 recordDays recordedPeak (cfs)
1976 69 1st lowest of 15 · 24% of median 15 6.0
1977 190 5th lowest of 15 · 67% of median 29 5.0
1978 258 7th lowest of 15 · 92% of median 48 5.0
1979 930 14th lowest of 15 · 330% of median 78 13.0
1980 5,919 15th lowest of 15 · 2099% of median 335 13.0
1981 353 10th lowest of 15 · 125% of median 55 13.0
1982 122 2nd lowest of 15 · 43% of median 38 11.5
1983 335 9th lowest of 15 · 119% of median 23 12.0
1984 142 3rd lowest of 15 · 50% of median 14 5.5
1985 417 13th lowest of 15 · 148% of median 31 7.0
1986 143 4th lowest of 15 · 51% of median 27 3.5
2009 361 11th lowest of 15 · 128% of median 54 5.4
2010 385 12th lowest of 15 · 136% of median 62 8.5
2011 282 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median 68 12.0
2014 238 6th lowest of 15 · 84% of median 36 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 1 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record stale 913 measured days, but newest is 4467 day(s) before the data's end (target 450)
record continuity sparse 11% of the irrigation seasons in 1976-2014 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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