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SPINNEY MTN RESERVOIR

Structure dossier · WDID 2304013 · RESERVOIR · SOUTH PLATTE RIVER · DWR record

Spinney Mtn Reservoir is a reservoir on South Platte River 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 14:52 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.

Where this structure is measured

GageFlowing nowRecordHow we know
SPINNEY MOUNTAIN RESERVOIR NEAR HARTSEL, CO SPIRESCO — — co-located, 15 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

SPINNEY MTN RESERVOIR holds 63 decreed rights on SOUTH PLATTE RIVER. As of 2026-10-02, 62 of them are out of priority under a call at admin 6637.00000 placed by SOUTH PLATTE RIVER AT WATERTON. Its 1 most senior right, back to 1867-07-01, keeps diverting. 4 further calls state no district and sit outside this one, so they are counted here rather than assumed either way. In a median year over its last 15 recorded years it diverts 59,261 acre-feet. It was a party to 14 court cases that also touched 41 other structures.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (11 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 SPINNEY MOUNTAIN (completed 1982)
Hazard class High
Condition at last inspection Satisfactory (2026-08-06)
Storage restriction None on file
Normal storage 53,873 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: “SPINNEY MOUNTAIN” 0.04 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

● Junior rights called out — call at LITTLETON BOAT CHUTE NO 10 (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1994-12-02).

● Junior rights called out — call at BURLINGTON D RIVER HEADGATE (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1885-11-20).

● Junior rights called out — call at SOUTH PLATTE RIVER AT WATERTON (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1868-03-03).

● Junior rights called out — call at STERLING IRR CO DITCH 1 (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1936-01-13).

● Junior rights called out — call at HARMONY DITCH 1 (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER, priority 1995-12-31).

Which of its rights are out of priority?

Under today's controlling call (SOUTH PLATTE RIVER AT WATERTON, priority 1868-03-03): 62 of this structure's 63 rights are out of priority now. (4 call(s) state no district and sit outside this one — not judged, not assumed.) In the 5 past years most like this one (2020, 2014, 2013, 2017, 2023), 3 of the rights shown below were out at least one week in at least one analog year.

Right (priority)NowAnalog years outMajority out by
1867-07-01 6391 ● in priority 0 of 5 —
1873-05-23 8544 ● out 0 of 5 —
1873-06-25 8577 ● out 0 of 5 —
… 57 more rights between these …
2012-02-01 59201 ● out 5 of 5 2026-10-02
2013-10-03 59811 ● out 5 of 5 2026-10-02
2009-05-25 60631 ● out 5 of 5 2026-10-02
How this table is built, and what it is not

“Now” compares each right's admin number with today's most senior applicable active call. The outlook uses flows at SOUTH PLATTE RIVER ABOVE ELEVENMILE RESERVOIR around 2026-10-02 (the newest reading on file) — currently 92% of that gage's own median for this window — to pick the 5 most similar past years with complete administration records (2011–2026). Only calls that verifiably apply count: DWR's own district statements in the call's set comments, a caller located in this district, or — on the same stream, where DWR records both stream miles (measured from the mouth) — a caller DOWNSTREAM of this structure. An upstream senior cannot demand water this diversion never deprives it of. Calls that state nothing and sit elsewhere are counted as unjudged rather than assumed, which also means the verified record is shorter than the raw one: early calls rarely state districts. For each week it finds the most senior call then in force; a right is out in that week exactly when that call is senior to it, which is why one line prices every right and juniors can be out while seniors keep diverting. “Majority out by” is the first week out in more than half the analog years. A frequency among named historical years, not a probability from a model, and not a forecast of what the division engineer will do. It says how often years whose flow resembled this one were under a call senior to this right in a given week. Snowpack, storage, and the actual administrative decisions of a given season are not modelled. Check the analog years listed: if they do not resemble this year to you, the outlook does not either.

Where it sits in line

Priority 1867-07-01 — 235th most senior of the 21886 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: SILVERHEELS AUG RES (1867-07-01). Immediately behind: MICHIGAN HILL AUG RES (1867-07-01).

On MAINSTEM at river mile 8.4, it is 123rd of 890 down the reach. Immediately upstream: FOSTER DITCH. Immediately downstream: SODA POP SPRING.

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 (67)

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
6391.00000 1867-07-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.147 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +6 W8345, 87CW0200
8544.00000 1873-05-231889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 3.6 cfs Municipal W9448
8577.00000 1873-06-251889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.3 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 79CW0351
8645.00000 1873-09-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.48 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +4 79CW0274
8918.00000 1874-06-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 7.94 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +8 79CW0274, W9234 +1
8932.00000 1874-06-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.2 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
9266.00000 1875-05-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.7 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 93CW0140
9271.00000 1875-05-201889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.78 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 79CW0351
9282.00000 1875-05-311889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 5.3 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
9283.00000 1875-06-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.83 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +7 92CW0156
9663.00000 1876-06-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.91 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 79CW0351
9678.00000 1876-06-301889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.39 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 79CW0351
9679.00000 1876-07-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 3.04 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 79CW0351
9693.00000 1876-07-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.1 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
9709.00000 1876-07-311889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 5.0 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
9997.00000 1877-05-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 9.7 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
10014.00000 1877-06-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 7.07 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595, 79CW0351
10044.00000 1877-07-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 5.7 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
10348.00000 1878-05-011889-10-18 0.0 AF 0.0 1724.0 AF Irrigation, Municipal +8 05CW0111
10348.00000 1878-05-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 11.75 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +8 05CW0111
10367.00000 1878-05-201889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 4.97 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +6 84CW0065
10440.00000 1878-08-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.59 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 84CW0010
10449.00000 1878-08-101889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.82 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +6 79CW0274, 84CW0010
10727.00000 1879-05-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.8 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
10836.00000 1879-09-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 3.08 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +8 84CW0010, 92CW0156
11032.00000 1880-03-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 2.4 cfs Municipal, All beneficial uses 88CW0263
11098.00000 1880-05-201889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 2.16 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +6 84CW0065
11110.00000 1880-06-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 2.8 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
11129.00000 1880-06-201889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 2.0 cfs Municipal, All beneficial uses 88CW0263
11170.00000 1880-07-311889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.15 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +8 05CW0111
11170.00000 1880-07-311889-10-18 0.0 AF 0.0 185.0 AF Irrigation, Municipal +8 05CW0111
11414.00000 1881-04-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 11.75 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +8 05CW0111
11414.00000 1881-04-011889-10-18 0.0 AF 0.0 2134.0 AF Irrigation, Municipal +8 05CW0111
11453.00000 1881-05-101889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.57 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +8 92CW0156, 86CW0223 +1
11458.00000 1881-05-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.27 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +7 92CW0156
11597.00000 1881-10-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 28.8 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
11809.00000 1882-05-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.5 cfs Municipal, All beneficial uses 88CW0262
11839.00000 1882-05-311889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 9.6 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
11946.00000 1882-09-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 4.9 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
12707.00000 1884-10-151889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 10.5 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
12924.00000 1885-05-201889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 2.6 cfs Municipal, All beneficial uses 88CW0263
13635.00000 1887-05-011889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 4.6 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 79CW0351
13659.00000 1887-05-251889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.21 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 84CW0010
13707.00000 1887-07-121889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.09 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +4 79CW0274
14041.00000 1888-06-101889-10-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.19 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +4 79CW0274
14536.08157 1872-05-011913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.0 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
14536.08188 1872-06-011913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.0 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
14536.08553 1873-06-011913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.0 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
14536.09649 1876-06-011913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 1.0 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
14536.09983 1877-05-011913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.7 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 W7595
14536.10744 1879-06-011913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.35 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 84CW0010
14536.12571 1884-06-011893-10-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.19 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 84CW0010
14536.12936 1885-06-011913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 3.63 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +4 79CW0274, 88CW0263
14536.14427 1889-07-011896-05-28 0.0 cfs 0.0 5.7 cfs Municipal, All beneficial uses 88CW0262
16718.00000 1895-10-091913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 6.7 cfs Municipal, All beneficial uses 88CW0262
18774.00000 1901-05-271913-05-22 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.68 cfs Municipal, Augmentation +1 84CW0010
45010.00000 1973-03-261973-12-31 52829.0 AF 33171.0 AF — Irrigation, Municipal +7 85CW0251, 89CW0146 +1
47481.00000 1979-12-311979-12-31 0.0 AF 0.0 5000.0 AF Other 79CW0375, 19CW3185 +1
48174.00000 1981-11-231981-12-31 0.0 AF 0.0 49000.0 AF Other 81CW0449
50766.00000 1988-12-281988-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 322.8 cfs Municipal, All beneficial uses 04CW0286, 97CW0104 +3
51121.00000 1989-12-181989-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 600.0 cfs Municipal 89CW0214, 89CW0215 +3
51864.47386 1979-09-271992-12-31 0.0 AF 4000.0 AF — All beneficial uses 92CW0163
57146.00000 2006-06-172006-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 0.23 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +5 06CW0270
59201.00000 2012-02-012012-12-31 0.0 cfs 0.0 13.0 cfs All beneficial uses 12CW0050
59811.00000 2013-10-032013-12-31 0.0 AF 20.0 AF — Industrial, Augmentation 08CW0268
59811.00000 2013-10-032013-12-31 0.0 cfs 5.0 cfs — Industrial, Augmentation 08CW0268
60630.58219 2009-05-252016-12-31 18.0 AF 0.0 — Augmentation 16CW3179

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.

Water-court filings naming this structure

1 application in the monthly water-court resumes explicitly reference this WDID. The resume is the earliest public notice of a new claim (C.R.S. 37-92-302) — years before anything reaches the decree record below. Most applications name structures by name rather than WDID, so absence here is weak evidence of absence.

MonthCaseWhat it asksOppose byExcerpt
2026-06 2026CW3096 reasonable diligence closed 2026-08-31 CASE NUMBER 20 26CW3096 (Case No. 19CW3185, 08CW253, 98CW294) THE CITY OF AURORA, COLORADO, a municipal corporation of the Counties of Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas acting by and through its Utility Enterprise (“Aurora" or…

Source: Judicial Branch combined monthly resumes (archive), indexed nightly; WDIDs attached only when a 7-digit token in the filing matches DWR’s structure inventory.

How often is it out of priority?

Across the 11 seasons whose call record is complete enough to judge this structure (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026), week by week from April.

most senior right · admin 6391.00000 · peaks at 1 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
middle right · admin 11458.00000 · peaks at 9 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
most junior right · admin 60630.58219 · peaks at 10 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep

Snow sets the clock here. In the driest third of snow years (3 seasons), 2 seasons stayed under call throughout and 0 ended free. In the middle third (5 seasons), the call settled in for the season around July 8 (June 24 to July 8 across those years); in 3 of them it never lifted at all. In the wettest third (3 seasons), the call settled in for the season around July 8 (May 6 to July 8 across those years); in 1 of them it never lifted at all.

Snow years ranked by the district’s April 1 snow-water percentile across 3 SNOTEL sites; 11 seasons carry both a snow reading and a judgeable call record. How the past played out, not a forecast.

Why only 11 seasons, and what the bars mean

Each bar is one week: how many of those seasons that right was out of priority under a call this site can lawfully attribute to this structure. Green is never, red is every season on record.

The short record is a property of DWR's data, not of the river. A call only counts against a structure when we can establish it applies — by the districts named in its set comments, or by stream mile on the same source. DWR did not begin stating affected districts routinely until about 2015: fewer than one call in ten can be judged before then, against roughly two in three since. A season we cannot judge is not a season without calls, so it is dropped rather than counted as quiet — 12 seasons dropped here.

This is a frequency over past seasons, not a forecast. It says nothing about what the division engineer will do this year.

Recorded use (last 15 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 59,261 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 54,868 AF — 93% of that, and 4th lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.

This structure records both diversions and reservoir releases — they are separate water movements and are accounted separately below.

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 recordReleased (AF)Days recordedPeak (cfs)
2011 60,195 10th lowest of 15 · 102% of median 49,892 365 263.4
2012 51,042 2nd lowest of 15 · 86% of median 61,516 366 145.0
2013 59,261 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median 39,206 365 404.8
2014 71,375 13th lowest of 15 · 120% of median 39,057 365 547.5
2015 97,671 15th lowest of 15 · 165% of median 35,539 365 905.2
2016 45,474 1st lowest of 15 · 77% of median 48,098 366 344.0
2017 59,725 9th lowest of 15 · 101% of median 42,209 365 343.3
2018 58,214 7th lowest of 15 · 98% of median 60,554 365 281.5
2019 57,575 6th lowest of 15 · 97% of median 35,802 365 550.3
2020 53,234 3rd lowest of 15 · 90% of median 56,932 366 278.3
2021 65,355 12th lowest of 15 · 110% of median 55,967 365 346.6
2022 63,316 11th lowest of 15 · 107% of median 64,582 365 343.3
2023 71,406 14th lowest of 15 · 120% of median 40,053 365 433.7
2024 56,980 5th lowest of 15 · 96% of median 64,646 366 344.7
2025 54,868 4th lowest of 15 · 93% of median 52,950 304 332.6

How good is our record of it?

Grade A (10/10 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 67 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record current 14535 measured days, newest 336 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears)
record continuity continuous 100% of the irrigation seasons in 1981-2025 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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