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· every download of this record carries its certificate idLA JARA RESERVOIR
Structure dossier · WDID 2103582 · RESERVOIR · LA JARA CREEK · DWR record
La Jara Reservoir is a reservoir on La Jara 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 2026-10-23 11:17 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260928 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (7055959) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.
Who owns it
- Colorado Parks and Wildlife (state) — as reported to the National Inventory of Dams (USACE) ↗.
DWR’s own records name no owner for a ditch, reservoir or well, so this comes from the source shown and can be out of date. Organisations only: a private landowner’s name is never listed.
Where this structure is measured
| Gage | Flowing now | Record | How we know |
|---|---|---|---|
| LA JARA RESERVOIR OUTLET LAJOUTCO | 9.11 cfs | 2023–2026, 978 days | DWR telemetry mapping |
| LA JARA RESERVOIR LAJRESCO | — | — | co-located, 49 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.
Flowing now
9.11 cfs as of 2026-10-23 08:30 (2.8 h ago)
Provisional 15-minute telemetry from LAJOUTCO ↗ (LA JARA RESERVOIR OUTLET). Raw, not the approved record — it is never merged into the diversion history below. DWR publishes the official diversion record after the water year closes and is approved, which is why that record ends months back while this reads minutes ago.
In short
LA JARA RESERVOIR holds 1 decreed right on LA JARA CREEK. A call at MC CUNNIFF D on LA JARA CREEK (1870-03-31) currently reaches it: fully called out. 7 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: only 2 analog year(s) have both flow and a complete administration record; 4 needed. In a median year over its last 10 recorded years it diverts 1,808 acre-feet.
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
| Dam | LA JARA - DAM NO. 1 (completed 1906) |
|---|---|
| Hazard class | Significant |
| Condition at last inspection | Conditionally Satisfactory (2025-08-26) |
| Storage restriction | None on file |
| Normal storage | 14,055 AF |
| Physical status | Active |
| Emergency action plan | Yes |
Source: DWR Dam Safety’s jurisdictional-dam inventory
(damsafety/damsafetydaminfojd), refreshed weekly.
Joined on this structure’s own WDID as DWR
records it on the dam. Hazard class describes the
consequence of failure, not the likelihood of it.
DWR’s dam record.
Current administration
● Fully called out — call at MC CUNNIFF D (LA JARA CREEK, priority 1870-03-31).
Which of its rights are out of priority?
The outlook for the weeks ahead is not computable for this structure: only 2 analog year(s) have both flow and a complete administration record; 4 needed. 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 1904-12-13 — 144th most senior of the 1041 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: W2507 WELL NO 03 (1903-12-31). Immediately behind: W2222 WELL NO 01 (1904-12-31).
On MAINSTEM at river mile 3.1, it is 2nd of 50 down the reach. Immediately upstream: LOST LAKE. Immediately downstream: BEAVER LAKE.
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 (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. | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20070.00000 | 1904-12-13 | 1918-02-07 | 14056.0 AF | 0.0 | — | Irrigation | 111 |
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.
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
02/07/1918.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
02/07/1918 | 1 | 1918-02-07 | S |
4 imaged documents on DWR’s shelf for this structure — 1 water-court document across 1 case, including 1 decree. Every row opens the scanned PDF at DWR. Listing as of 2026-10-21.
- Decree in case 02/07/1918 ↗ · imaged 2006-09-05 · 22 pages
“Imaged” is the date DWR’s archive filed the scan, which is often years after the court acted (a 1911 decree can be imaged in 2011). The court’s own date is the adjudication date in the rights table.
Court record (1)
| Imaged | Case | Type | Pages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-09-05 | 02/07/1918 |
DECREE | 22 | open ↗ |
Maps (3)
| Date | Title | Pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-01-11 | LA JARA RESERVOIR | 1 | open ↗ |
| 2006-01-11 | LA JARA RESERVOIR (PRELIMINARY) | 5 | open ↗ |
| 2006-01-11 | RIO LA JARA RESERVOIR, PRELIMINARY | 5 | open ↗ |
Imaged documents at DWR. DWR keeps the scanned documents for this structure — decrees, rulings, plats, correspondence — in its Laserfiche archive. Open the list directly: imaged documents for 2103582 ↗ (indexed by structure, not by case — the cases listed above appear within the list).
Other DWR records for this structure: DWR’s page for this structure ↗ — net amounts, water rights, transactions & adjudication history, and diversion records, all on that one page. On this site: the district’s full legal picture →
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 1,808 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 1,343 AF — 74% of that, and 4th lowest of the 10 years with a recorded volume.
This structure records both diversions and reservoir releases — they are separate water movements and are accounted separately below.
| 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 | Released (AF) | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | — | no recorded volume | 1,213 | 0 | — |
| 2016 | 937 | 2nd lowest of 10 · 52% of median | 519 | 273 | 9.0 |
| 2017 | 1,958 | 7th lowest of 10 · 108% of median | 1,031 | 365 | 158.9 |
| 2018 | 801 | 1st lowest of 10 · 44% of median | 1,097 | 365 | 31.3 |
| 2019 | 3,646 | 9th lowest of 10 · 202% of median | 1,643 | 365 | 202.6 |
| 2020 | 1,875 | 6th lowest of 10 · 104% of median | 2,002 | 366 | 14.8 |
| 2021 | 2,237 | 8th lowest of 10 · 124% of median | 1,021 | 365 | 217.7 |
| 2022 | 1,187 | 3rd lowest of 10 · 66% of median | 711 | 365 | 31.5 |
| 2023 | 4,503 | 10th lowest of 10 · 249% of median | 2,517 | 335 | 220.2 |
| 2024 | 1,740 | 5th lowest of 10 · 96% of median | 1,339 | 306 | 59.2 |
| 2025 | 1,343 | 4th lowest of 10 · 74% of median | 1,298 | 304 | 86.5 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use shows no clear trend over its last 10 recorded years — which is itself worth knowing.
Its reference gage, La Jara Reservoir Outlet: no clear flow trend.
How good is our record of it?
Grade A (9/10 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 | current | 3409 measured days, newest 352 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears) |
| record continuity | patchy | 41% of the irrigation seasons in 1986-2025 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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