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BERTHOUD PASS RELEASE STRUCTURE

Structure dossier · WDID 0704625 · OTHER · HOOP CREEK · DWR record · probably NORTHGLENN CITY OF’s (matched on DWR’s contact or an EPA intake name; verify below)

Berthoud Pass Release Structure is a water structure on Hoop Creek 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 2026-11-01 20:56 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260928 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (4314eb4) — 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DWR’s own records name no owner for a ditch, reservoir or well, so this comes from the source shown and can be out of date.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

This is water crossing the divide

Berthoud Pass Release Structure is the receiving end of the Berthoud Pass Ditch (ditch). It takes water from Fraser River headwaters at Berthoud Pass (Div 5) and delivers it to West Fork Clear Creek (Div 1). Water arriving here is an import: it was never in this basin’s own runoff.

The other end: Berthoud Canal and Reservoir Tunnel 5104625

Metered as a facility: BERDITCO — the record for the crossing itself, which may run longer than the record for either structure.

Owner / operator: City of Northglenn (owns and operates the ditch system and water rights); co-owned in part by the City of Golden

A 3.5-mile ditch begun in 1902 that carries Fraser River headwater water over Berthoud Pass into Hoop Creek and West Fork Clear Creek. Decreed for irrigation (appropriation 1902-06-30, 53.4 cfs, adjudicated 1911-08-03 in case CA0183, the adjudication that covers Water District 51 (more than 100 other structures on DWR's record carry the same case)). Bought from the Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Company (FRICO) in the mid-1980s by the cities of Northglenn and Golden, and now used for municipal supply. Golden's share of the yield, and the decrees that changed the use, are NOT established here: the decrees are imaged at DWR but have not been read. Sources: City of Northglenn, Water Resources ↗; Clear Creek County, The Ditch on Berthoud Pass ↗.

From the site’s hand-curated register of transbasin facilities. Every crossing on one page →

Where this structure is measured

GageFlowing nowRecordHow we know
BERTHOUD PASS DITCH AT BERTHOUD PASS, CO. BERDITCO — 1932–2026, 35,551 days DWR telemetry mapping

A green link is DWR's own: either its telemetry inventory maps this WDID to that station, or the station is named for this WDID (0700553 → 0700553A). An amber one is ours — the station sits within 250 m and shares a distinctive word with this structure's name, which is a strong hint rather than a DWR statement that this gage meters this structure. Wrong? Tell us.

In short

In a median year over its last 15 recorded years it diverts 617 acre-feet.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (2 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.

Log in to download the record Print / save as PDF

Downloads (the .zip and six CSV tables) need a free account — create one or log in. Everything in them is on this page.

Why the account? It is not a paywall and not a mailing list. Automated scrapers were requesting tens of thousands of these files a day, and each one rebuilds this whole record, which slowed the site for the people reading it. An account is the simplest way to keep downloads open to people and closed to bots.

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 (other). Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.

Which of its rights are out of priority?

The outlook for the weeks ahead is not computable for this structure: no decreed right on file, so there is no priority to test.

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 617 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 617 AF — 100% of that, and 8th 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.

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)
2009 728 12th lowest of 15 · 118% of median 1,044 109 10.0
2010 533 4th lowest of 15 · 86% of median 541 99 9.4
2011 841 15th lowest of 15 · 136% of median 841 85 19.0
2012 403 2nd lowest of 15 · 65% of median 403 125 5.8
2013 552 5th lowest of 15 · 90% of median 552 108 11.0
2014 605 7th lowest of 15 · 98% of median 605 120 11.2
2016 741 13th lowest of 15 · 120% of median 741 82 15.5
2017 793 14th lowest of 15 · 128% of median 793 85 13.7
2018 422 3rd lowest of 15 · 68% of median 422 51 9.4
2019 646 10th lowest of 15 · 105% of median 646 119 11.3
2020 628 9th lowest of 15 · 102% of median 628 102 10.0
2021 362 1st lowest of 15 · 59% of median 362 114 7.2
2023 673 11th lowest of 15 · 109% of median 673 115 10.8
2024 555 6th lowest of 15 · 90% of median 555 115 12.6
2025 617 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median 617 125 13.0

How good is our record of it?

Grade C (5/10 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 absent no water rights cached for this WDID
diversion record present 5914 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against)
record continuity sparse 38% of the irrigation seasons in 1953-2025 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.

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