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BRUSH HOLLOW RESERVOIR

Structure dossier · WDID 1203779 · RESERVOIR · BRUSH HOLLOW CREEK · DWR record · probably PENROSE WD’s (matched on DWR’s contact or an EPA intake name; verify below)

Brush Hollow Reservoir is a reservoir on Brush Hollow 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 2026-10-15 10:42 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

Where this structure is measured

GageFlowing nowRecordHow we know
BRUSH HOLLOW RESERVOIR BVRWP2CO — — co-located, 20 m

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

BRUSH HOLLOW RESERVOIR holds 4 decreed rights on BRUSH HOLLOW CREEK. No active call senior to its rights reaches its district today (20 active calls checked), so it is in priority now. 13 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). In a median year over its last 11 recorded years it diverts 1,039 acre-feet. It was a party to 1 court cases that also touched 1 other structures.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (7 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 (storage). Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.

Dam safety

⚠ Under an active storage restriction from DWR’s Dam Safety branch.

The State Engineer limits what this dam may impound. DWR publishes no safe-storage figure for it. A low reading on this reservoir can be an order, not a drought; read any storage or fill figure on this page alongside it.

Dam BRUSH HOLLOW (completed 1922)
Hazard class High
Condition at last inspection Unsatisfactory (2026-02-10)
Storage restriction Yes
Normal storage 3,715 AF
Physical status Active
Emergency action plan Yes

Source: DWR Dam Safety’s jurisdictional-dam inventory (damsafety/damsafetydaminfojd), refreshed weekly. DWR’s record for this dam carries no WDID and no matched NID id, so it is joined by name and position: “BRUSH HOLLOW” 0.141 mi away. More than half of Colorado’s jurisdictional dams can be reached no other way; judge the match before relying on it. Hazard class describes the consequence of failure, not the likelihood of it. DWR’s dam record.

Current administration

● In priority — no active call senior to this structure's rights affects its district (20 active call(s) checked).

13 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 1877-12-31 — 224th most senior of the 1967 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: PHANTOM CANYON RESERVOIR (1877-12-31). Immediately behind: PENROSE WD WELL H6 (1877-12-31).

On BRUSH HOLLOW CREEK at river mile 84.1, it is 1st of 6 down the reach. Nothing modelled upstream of it on this reach. Immediately downstream: DAVID DANIEL POND.

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 (4)

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
10227.00000 1877-12-311906-07-02 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.788 cfs Municipal, Commercial +6 194
12204.00000 1883-05-311894-02-03 0.0 cfs 0.0 7.148 cfs Municipal, Commercial +6 291
27709.20911 1907-04-031926-02-01 4185.62 AF 0.0 — Storage CA4655
49673.49387 1985-03-201986-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 2345.04 cfs All beneficial uses 86CW0118A, 86CW0118B

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.

Recorded use (last 11 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 1,039 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 1,361 AF — 131% of that, and 9th lowest of the 11 years with a recorded volume.

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 recordDays recordedPeak (cfs)
1973 672 4th lowest of 11 · 65% of median 61 7.0
1974 2,160 11th lowest of 11 · 208% of median 126 21.0
1991 586 3rd lowest of 11 · 56% of median 27 29.3
2018 24 1st lowest of 11 · 2% of median 12 1.1
2019 500 2nd lowest of 11 · 48% of median 120 9.4
2020 726 5th lowest of 11 · 70% of median 136 10.1
2021 1,103 7th lowest of 11 · 106% of median 365 14.4
2022 1,039 6th lowest of 11 · 100% of median 365 11.8
2023 1,301 8th lowest of 11 · 125% of median 365 16.8
2024 1,883 10th lowest of 11 · 181% of median 365 20.7
2025 1,361 9th lowest of 11 · 131% of median 304 12.8

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
CheckStateDetail
identity complete name, type, and water source all on file
decreed rights on file 4 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record current 2246 measured days, newest 331 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears)
record continuity sparse 20% of the irrigation seasons in 1973-2025 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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