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SWADLEY LONGAN DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 0700678 · DITCH · RALSTON CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:49 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (4ab2507) — 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.
Current administration
● In priority — no active call senior to this structure's rights affects its district (23 active call(s) checked).
Which of its rights are out of priority?
Not computable for this structure: no gage record for this year at this date, so there is nothing to find analogs for.
Where it sits in line
Priority 1861-04-10 — 43rd most senior of the 1815 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: LINDSTROM NO 1 DITCH (1861-02-25). Immediately behind: 0702420 (1861-04-10).
On RALSTON CREEK at river mile 53.1, it is 21st of 24 down the reach. Immediately upstream: CROKE CANAL ARVADA RT TO RALSTON CREEK. Immediately downstream: SEA OF TRANQUILLITY 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4118.0 | 1861-04-10 | 1884-10-04 | 2.53 | 0.0 | C | IRRMUNCOMINDRECFISDOMAUGWLD |
Legal record & documents
10 decreed actions on record across
7 court cases:
W8083, 96CW0148, 89CW0099, 85CW0409, 82CW0359, 10/04/1884, 05CW0112.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
W8083 | 1 | 1884-10-04 | O |
96CW0148 | 1 | 1884-10-04 | O |
89CW0099 | 2 | 1884-10-04 | O |
85CW0409 | 2 | 1884-10-04 | O |
82CW0359 | 1 | 1884-10-04 | O |
10/04/1884 | 1 | 1884-10-04 | O |
05CW0112 | 2 | 1884-10-04 | 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 381 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 514 AF — 135% of that, and 14th lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.
This structure records both diversions and reservoir releases — they are separate water movements and are accounted separately below.
| 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 | Released (AF) | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 194 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 51% of median | — | 126 | 1.3 |
| 2012 | 153 | 1st lowest of 15 · 40% of median | — | 166 | 0.9 |
| 2013 | 381 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | — | 157 | 2.2 |
| 2014 | 500 | 13th lowest of 15 · 131% of median | — | 159 | 2.8 |
| 2015 | 203 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 53% of median | — | 99 | 3.1 |
| 2016 | 305 | 5th lowest of 15 · 80% of median | — | 141 | 2.1 |
| 2017 | 473 | 11th lowest of 15 · 124% of median | — | 170 | 4.6 |
| 2018 | 345 | 6th lowest of 15 · 91% of median | — | 159 | 2.9 |
| 2019 | 495 | 12th lowest of 15 · 130% of median | — | 132 | 3.8 |
| 2020 | 351 | 7th lowest of 15 · 92% of median | — | 173 | 3.7 |
| 2021 | 422 | 10th lowest of 15 · 111% of median | — | 137 | 4.0 |
| 2022 | 563 | 15th lowest of 15 · 148% of median | — | 179 | 3.0 |
| 2023 | 261 | 4th lowest of 15 · 68% of median | — | 181 | 3.1 |
| 2024 | 411 | 9th lowest of 15 · 108% of median | — | 184 | 3.7 |
| 2025 | 514 | 14th lowest of 15 · 135% of median | — | 184 | 3.6 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is rising over its last 15 recorded years (+18 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.048).
Its reference gage, CROKE CANAL INLET TO STANDLEY RESERVOIR: 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 | 8287 measured days, newest 282 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears) |
| record continuity | patchy | 56% of the irrigation seasons in 1956-2025 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.