Hydrohistorian
← My Water · Print / save as PDF
BUTTE DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 1600574 · 1 · CUCHARAS RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 00:39 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 1871-05-01 — 66th most senior of the 1044 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: LABRIE DITCH (1870-06-15). Immediately behind: ROCKY FLAT DITCH (1871-05-01).
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. | Units | UsesWhat the court said this water may be used for -- irrigation, municipal supply, augmentation and so on. | Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7791.0 | 1871-05-01 | 1889-06-12 | 0.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 17 |
| 14046.0 | 1888-06-15 | 1889-06-12 | 3.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 70 |
| 14776.0 | 1890-06-15 | 1898-02-23 | 5.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 152 |
| 61713.0 | 2018-12-18 | 2017-12-31 | 0.0 | 0.0 | C | MUN |
Legal record & documents
22 decreed actions on record across
5 court cases:
17CW3075, 17CW3063, 02/23/1898, CA4090, 06/12/1889.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
17CW3075 | 12 | 2017-12-31 | S |
17CW3063 | 7 | 2017-12-31 | S |
02/23/1898 | 1 | 1898-02-23 | S |
CA4090 | 1 | 1889-06-12 | O |
06/12/1889 | 1 | 1889-06-12 | 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 252 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 420 AF — 167% of that, and 13th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 48 | 0.0 |
| 2012 | 504 | 14th lowest of 15 · 200% of median | 112 | 4.3 |
| 2013 | 50 | 5th lowest of 15 · 20% of median | 59 | 4.1 |
| 2014 | 306 | 11th lowest of 15 · 121% of median | 118 | 4.3 |
| 2015 | 898 | 15th lowest of 15 · 356% of median | 130 | 13.2 |
| 2016 | 40 | 4th lowest of 15 · 16% of median | 68 | 1.0 |
| 2017 | 217 | 7th lowest of 15 · 86% of median | 73 | 13.3 |
| 2018 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 50 | 0.0 |
| 2019 | 297 | 10th lowest of 15 · 118% of median | 82 | 4.8 |
| 2020 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 52 | 0.0 |
| 2021 | 343 | 12th lowest of 15 · 136% of median | 79 | 6.6 |
| 2022 | 64 | 6th lowest of 15 · 25% of median | 56 | 3.3 |
| 2023 | 294 | 9th lowest of 15 · 117% of median | 114 | 2.6 |
| 2024 | 252 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 60 | 3.4 |
| 2025 | 420 | 13th lowest of 15 · 167% of median | 77 | 4.1 |
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 | 4 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 7726 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 32% of the irrigation seasons in 1912-2025 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.