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ZABRISKIE DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 2900759 · 8 · SAN JUAN RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 05:23 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (a1c9146) — 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 1909-06-15 — 152nd most senior of the 853 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: DUTTON DITCH ALT PT (1909-06-03). Immediately behind: SWEEDE DITCH (1910-05-25).
Decreed rights (2)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21715.0 | 1909-06-15 | 1912-11-13 | 1.5 | 0.0 | C | IRR | #171 |
| 43080.0 | 1967-12-13 | 1968-12-19 | 2.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 68-342 |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
CA0308-D, 80CW0073, CA0308.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA0308-D | 1 | 1968-12-19 | S |
80CW0073 | 1 | 1968-12-19 | S |
CA0308 | 1 | 1912-11-13 | 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 15 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2013, came in at 0 AF — 0% of that, and 1st 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 58 | 11th lowest of 15 · 387% of median | 59 | 1.0 |
| 1983 | 117 | 15th lowest of 15 · 780% of median | 87 | 1.0 |
| 1984 | 71 | 14th lowest of 15 · 473% of median | 65 | 1.0 |
| 1986 | 69 | 12th lowest of 15 · 460% of median | 65 | 1.0 |
| 1987 | 69 | 12th lowest of 15 · 460% of median | 56 | 1.0 |
| 1988 | 1 | 5th lowest of 15 · 7% of median | 31 | 0.1 |
| 1989 | 15 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 44 | 0.4 |
| 1990 | 10 | 7th lowest of 15 · 67% of median | 33 | 2.0 |
| 1991 | 5 | 6th lowest of 15 · 33% of median | 25 | 0.4 |
| 2008 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2009 | 39 | 10th lowest of 15 · 260% of median | 72 | 0.5 |
| 2010 | 22 | 9th lowest of 15 · 147% of median | 33 | 1.0 |
| 2011 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 17 | 0.0 |
| 2012 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 14 | 0.0 |
| 2013 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 12 | 0.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-2 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.002).
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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 952 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 12% of the irrigation seasons in 1977-2013 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.