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WILLOW CREEK DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 2801012 · 1 · WILLOW CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:58 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 1886-05-01 — 116th most senior of the 1505 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: L L BUSH NOS 1,2,3,4&5 D (1886-05-01). Immediately behind: ADAMS NO 2 DITCH (1886-05-31).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16192.1327 | 1886-05-01 | 1904-04-29 | 1.4 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 84 |
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
CA1266.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1266 | 1 | 1904-04-29 | S |
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 180 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2007, came in at 180 AF — 100% of that, and 8th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 255 | 11th lowest of 15 · 142% of median | 93 | 1.4 |
| 1973 | 452 | 14th lowest of 15 · 251% of median | 95 | 3.0 |
| 1989 | 140 | 5th lowest of 15 · 78% of median | 55 | 2.0 |
| 1990 | 143 | 6th lowest of 15 · 79% of median | 123 | 1.0 |
| 1991 | 332 | 13th lowest of 15 · 184% of median | 172 | 1.2 |
| 1992 | 190 | 9th lowest of 15 · 106% of median | 54 | 2.0 |
| 1993 | 306 | 12th lowest of 15 · 170% of median | 81 | 2.6 |
| 1994 | 30 | 1st lowest of 15 · 17% of median | 23 | 0.9 |
| 1995 | 516 | 15th lowest of 15 · 287% of median | 66 | 4.0 |
| 1996 | 133 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 74% of median | 68 | 1.0 |
| 1997 | 196 | 10th lowest of 15 · 109% of median | 71 | 2.0 |
| 1998 | 135 | 4th lowest of 15 · 75% of median | 70 | 1.0 |
| 1999 | 146 | 7th lowest of 15 · 81% of median | 90 | 1.0 |
| 2003 | 107 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 59% of median | 70 | 1.0 |
| 2007 | 180 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 175 | 1.0 |
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 | 1402 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 18% of the irrigation seasons in 1971-2007 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.