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BEN NELSON DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 3700726 · 1 · GROUSE CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 02:54 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 1889-06-20 — 188th most senior of the 2162 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: DIXON DITCH (1889-06-20). Immediately behind: OLESON DITCH (1889-08-06).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16251.14416 | 1889-06-20 | 1901-03-05 | 0.8 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 153 |
| 30894.23911 | 1915-06-20 | 1936-10-03 | 8.03 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 426 |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
CA0963, W2746, CA0385.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA0963 | 1 | 1936-10-03 | S |
W2746 | 1 | 1901-03-05 | S |
CA0385 | 1 | 1901-03-05 | 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 0 AF. Its most recent year on record, 1995, came in at 0 AF — —% 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | 908 | 14th lowest of 15 · —% of median | 128 | 5.4 |
| 1974 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1975 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1977 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1980 | 1,286 | 15th lowest of 15 · —% of median | 92 | 8.0 |
| 1984 | 666 | 13th lowest of 15 · —% of median | 123 | 4.0 |
| 1987 | 664 | 12th lowest of 15 · —% of median | 92 | 5.0 |
| 1988 | 605 | 11th lowest of 15 · —% of median | 107 | 4.0 |
| 1989 | 412 | 10th lowest of 15 · —% of median | 99 | 4.0 |
| 1990 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 4 | 0.0 |
| 1991 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1992 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1993 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1994 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1995 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · —% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-1 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.043).
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 | 1040 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 12% of the irrigation seasons in 1953-1995 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.