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MASON AND SHIELDS DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 3001146 · 1 · LIGHTNER CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:58 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 1886-05-20 — 331st most senior of the 2277 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: COWBOY WELL (1886-05-15). Immediately behind: SHAFFER DITCH (1886-10-01).
Decreed rights (3)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13289.0 | 1886-05-20 | 1923-11-08 | 0.25 | 0.0 | C | IRR | L-9 |
| 15110.0 | 1891-05-15 | 1923-11-08 | 0.1667 | 0.0 | C | IRR | L-10 |
| 42448.39977 | 1959-06-15 | 1968-05-03 | 0.3333 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 68-73 |
Legal record & documents
4 decreed actions on record across
4 court cases:
CA1751-B, CA6436, CA1751, 03CW0097.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1751-B | 1 | 1968-05-03 | S |
CA6436 | 1 | 1923-11-08 | O |
CA1751 | 1 | 1923-11-08 | O |
03CW0097 | 1 | 1923-11-08 | 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 9 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 18 | 14th lowest of 15 · 200% of median | 187 | 0.1 |
| 2012 | 21 | 15th lowest of 15 · 233% of median | 218 | 0.1 |
| 2013 | 15 | 12th lowest of 15 · 167% of median | 159 | 0.1 |
| 2014 | 15 | 12th lowest of 15 · 167% of median | 162 | 0.1 |
| 2015 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 29 | 0.0 |
| 2016 | 3 | 5th lowest of 15 · 33% of median | 76 | 0.0 |
| 2017 | 10 | 9th lowest of 15 · 111% of median | 122 | 0.1 |
| 2018 | 12 | 11th lowest of 15 · 133% of median | 155 | 0.1 |
| 2019 | 9 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 108 | 0.1 |
| 2020 | 11 | 10th lowest of 15 · 122% of median | 142 | 0.1 |
| 2021 | 5 | 6th lowest of 15 · 56% of median | 101 | 0.0 |
| 2022 | 8 | 7th lowest of 15 · 89% of median | 91 | 0.1 |
| 2023 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 28 | 0.0 |
| 2024 | 1 | 4th lowest of 15 · 11% of median | 34 | 0.1 |
| 2025 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 22 | 0.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-1 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.003).
How good is our record of it?
Grade B (8/10 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 | 3 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 9840 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 46% of the irrigation seasons in 1925-2025 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.