Hydrohistorian
Log in

← My Water  ·  Print / save as PDF  · 

 ·  every download of this record carries its certificate id

CHEROKEE RETURN FLOWS

Structure dossier · WDID 1004704 · OTHER · SAND CREEK · DWR record

Cherokee Return Flows is a water structure on Sand 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 2026-10-14 22:52 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.

The record and the river

In short

CHEROKEE RETURN FLOWS holds 9 decreed rights on SAND CREEK. No active call senior to its rights reaches its district today (20 active calls checked), so it is in priority now. 14 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 call in the record verifiably applies to this district (statements and caller locations checked). It was a party to 10 court cases that also touched 38 other structures.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (5 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 (other). 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 (20 active call(s) checked).

14 further calls state no district and sit outside this one, so they are counted here rather than assumed either way.

Which of its rights are out of priority?

The outlook for the weeks ahead is not computable for this structure: no call in the record verifiably applies to this district (statements and caller locations checked). 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 1987-02-18 — 1609th most senior of the 2872 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: PIONEER PRESERVE LLC PALMER LAKE NNT DEN (1985-08-26). Immediately behind: GAEDE WELL NO 3 (1987-02-18).

On SAND CREEK at river mile 35.3, it is 17th of 20 down the reach. Immediately upstream: JACKSON FULLER DETENTION POND DAM. Immediately downstream: J ELLIOTT TOWNHOMES AT W.

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 (9)

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
50087.00000 1987-02-181987-12-31 2.0 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 87CW0008
51893.00000 1992-01-291992-12-31 0.456 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 92CW0003
52171.00000 1992-11-021992-12-31 2.5 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 92CW0078, 94CW0068
52805.00000 1994-07-291994-12-31 3.087 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 94CW0040, 94CW0068
53201.00000 1995-08-291995-12-31 0.5 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 95CW0189
53691.52571 1993-12-071997-12-31 0.043 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 97CW0037
53995.00000 1997-10-311997-12-31 0.5 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 97CW0148
54846.00000 2000-02-292000-12-31 11.5 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 00CW0017
58316.00000 2009-08-302009-12-31 125.0 AF 0.0 — Irrigation, Augmentation 09CW0115

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 good is our record of it?

Grade C (6/10 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 9 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record absent no diversion records cached
record continuity unknown no record span to measure against
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.

Hydrohistorian is free, with no ads — one server and a lot of public records. If it earns its keep, you can help keep it running.