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W A BELL DITCH NO 1
Structure dossier · WDID 1300820 · 1 · ALVARADO CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:22 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 1871-08-31 — 51st most senior of the 1017 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: OLD E P SMITH DITCH (1871-08-01). Immediately behind: SCHNEIDER IRRIG WELL (1871-08-31).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7913.0 | 1871-08-31 | 1896-03-12 | 3.41 | 0.0 | C | IRRMUNCOMINDRECFISDOMAUGWLD | 30 |
Legal record & documents
6 decreed actions on record across
5 court cases:
W4321, 95CW0009, 21CW3078, 08CW0047, 03/12/1896.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
W4321 | 1 | 1896-03-12 | O |
95CW0009 | 1 | 1896-03-12 | O |
21CW3078 | 1 | 1896-03-12 | O |
08CW0047 | 2 | 1896-03-12 | O |
03/12/1896 | 1 | 1896-03-12 | 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 55 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 53 AF — 96% of that, and 5th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 446 | 15th lowest of 15 · 811% of median | 130 | 3.7 |
| 2007 | 405 | 14th lowest of 15 · 736% of median | 57 | 3.7 |
| 2008 | 52 | 4th lowest of 15 · 94% of median | 34 | 0.9 |
| 2010 | 53 | 5th lowest of 15 · 96% of median | 37 | 0.9 |
| 2011 | 185 | 13th lowest of 15 · 336% of median | 110 | 0.9 |
| 2012 | 53 | 5th lowest of 15 · 96% of median | 41 | 0.9 |
| 2013 | 29 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 53% of median | 22 | 3.7 |
| 2014 | 79 | 9th lowest of 15 · 144% of median | 19 | 3.7 |
| 2015 | 95 | 10th lowest of 15 · 173% of median | 23 | 3.7 |
| 2016 | 120 | 12th lowest of 15 · 218% of median | 26 | 3.6 |
| 2017 | 23 | 1st lowest of 15 · 42% of median | 8 | 2.3 |
| 2019 | 109 | 11th lowest of 15 · 198% of median | 35 | 3.4 |
| 2020 | 33 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 60% of median | 22 | 3.9 |
| 2022 | 55 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 22 | 3.4 |
| 2024 | 53 | 5th lowest of 15 · 96% of median | 30 | 2.8 |
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 | 6227 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 27% of the irrigation seasons in 1916-2024 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.