Hydrohistorian
← My Water · Print / save as PDF
CHURN DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 0900576 · 1 · BEAR CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 02:11 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (2deb1d7) — 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: this structure is not on the modelled flow network, so no reference gage can honestly stand in for it.
Where it sits in line
Priority 1870-04-15 — 95th most senior of the 2058 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: KUHLBORNE PIPELINE (1868-06-01). Immediately behind: RALSTON PL (1870-09-15).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7410.0 | 1870-04-15 | 1884-02-04 | 0.32 | 0.0 | C | IRR |
Legal record & documents
2 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA6832, 91CW0104.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA6832 | 1 | 1884-02-04 | O |
91CW0104 | 1 | 1884-02-04 | 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 42 AF. Its most recent year on record, 1973, came in at 48 AF — 114% of that, and 9th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | 18 | 1st lowest of 15 · 43% of median | 11 | 1.0 |
| 1959 | 50 | 10th lowest of 15 · 119% of median | 26 | 1.0 |
| 1960 | 60 | 13th lowest of 15 · 143% of median | 31 | 1.0 |
| 1961 | 30 | 4th lowest of 15 · 71% of median | 16 | 1.0 |
| 1962 | 32 | 6th lowest of 15 · 76% of median | 17 | 1.0 |
| 1963 | 42 | 7th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 22 | 1.0 |
| 1964 | 30 | 4th lowest of 15 · 71% of median | 16 | 1.0 |
| 1966 | 24 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 57% of median | 13 | 1.0 |
| 1967 | 24 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 57% of median | 13 | 1.0 |
| 1968 | 50 | 10th lowest of 15 · 119% of median | 28 | 1.0 |
| 1969 | 56 | 12th lowest of 15 · 133% of median | 30 | 1.0 |
| 1970 | 85 | 15th lowest of 15 · 202% of median | 46 | 1.0 |
| 1971 | 67 | 14th lowest of 15 · 160% of median | 39 | 1.0 |
| 1972 | 42 | 7th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 24 | 1.0 |
| 1973 | 48 | 9th lowest of 15 · 114% of median | 58 | 1.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use shows no clear trend over its last 15 recorded years — which is itself worth knowing.
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
| Check | State | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| identity | complete | name, type, and water source all on file |
| decreed rights | on file | 1 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 446 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 9% of the irrigation seasons in 1950-1973 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.