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LONG LAKE DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 0700711 · DITCH · RALSTON CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 00:35 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
● Fully called out — call at SWADLEY LONGAN DITCH (RALSTON CREEK, priority 1861-04-09).
● Fully called out — call at CLEAR CR PLATTE RIVER D (CLEAR CREEK, priority 1861-11-01).
● Fully called out — call at FARMERS INDEPENDENT DITCH (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1865-11-20).
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 1873-05-29 — 83rd 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: CLEAR LAKE RES (1873-05-10). Immediately behind: LONG LAKE RES UPPER (1873-05-29).
On RALSTON CREEK at river mile 43.6, it is 3rd of 24 down the reach. Immediately upstream: SEA OF STORMS RES. Immediately downstream: RALSTON 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 (2)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8550.0 | 1873-05-29 | 1884-10-04 | 7.54 | 0.0 | C | STO | |
| 21706.0 | 1909-06-06 | 1936-05-13 | 40.0 | 30.0 | C | STO |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA60052, 10/04/1884.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA60052 | 2 | 1936-05-13 | S |
10/04/1884 | 1 | 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 655 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 281 AF — 43% of that, and 4th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 1,434 | 15th lowest of 15 · 219% of median | 69 | 15.8 |
| 1986 | 1,190 | 13th lowest of 15 · 182% of median | 83 | 15.6 |
| 1987 | 932 | 10th lowest of 15 · 142% of median | 75 | 15.8 |
| 1988 | 669 | 9th lowest of 15 · 102% of median | 37 | 16.6 |
| 1992 | 968 | 11th lowest of 15 · 148% of median | 135 | 13.0 |
| 2016 | 976 | 12th lowest of 15 · 149% of median | 57 | 12.4 |
| 2017 | 214 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 33% of median | 13 | 13.7 |
| 2018 | 239 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 36% of median | 13 | 15.6 |
| 2019 | 592 | 7th lowest of 15 · 90% of median | 47 | 10.2 |
| 2020 | 456 | 5th lowest of 15 · 70% of median | 45 | 7.8 |
| 2021 | 655 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 98 | 7.6 |
| 2022 | 74 | 1st lowest of 15 · 11% of median | 57 | 3.9 |
| 2023 | 1,279 | 14th lowest of 15 · 195% of median | 49 | 24.1 |
| 2024 | 461 | 6th lowest of 15 · 70% of median | 61 | 7.9 |
| 2025 | 281 | 4th lowest of 15 · 43% of median | 123 | 7.5 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-18 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.048).
Its reference gage, RALSTON-CLEAR CREEK CANAL: no clear flow trend.
How good is our record of it?
Grade B (8/10 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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | current | 2950 measured days, newest 282 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears) |
| record continuity | sparse | 25% of the irrigation seasons in 1970-2025 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.