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TOWNSEND DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 3700835 · 1 · BEAVER CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:14 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 1888-05-18 — 218th 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: RED CLIFF TOWN OF WATER WORKS SYSTEM (1898-09-05). Immediately behind: BEAVER CR MUNICIPAL DIVR (1888-05-18).
Decreed rights (4)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20405.14018 | 1888-05-18 | 1905-12-05 | 1.67 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 204 |
| 30894.20226 | 1905-05-18 | 1936-10-03 | 3.844 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 396 |
| 38753.36675 | 1950-05-31 | 1958-07-23 | 12.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 532 |
| 42420.39051 | 1956-12-01 | 1972-05-31 | 2.0 | 0.0 | C | DOMSTK |
Legal record & documents
7 decreed actions on record across
5 court cases:
CA1529, CA1193, CA0963, W2746, CA0438.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1529 | 1 | 1972-05-31 | S |
CA1193 | 1 | 1958-07-23 | S |
CA0963 | 3 | 1936-10-03 | S |
W2746 | 1 | 1905-12-05 | S |
CA0438 | 1 | 1905-12-05 | 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 13 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 363 AF. Its most recent year on record, 1983, came in at 0 AF — 0% of that, and 1st lowest of the 13 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 904 | 11th lowest of 13 · 249% of median | 105 | 5.1 |
| 1952 | 1,250 | 13th lowest of 13 · 344% of median | 137 | 5.4 |
| 1953 | 506 | 8th lowest of 13 · 139% of median | 84 | 3.7 |
| 1955 | 763 | 9th lowest of 13 · 210% of median | 88 | 5.0 |
| 1956 | 1,063 | 12th lowest of 13 · 293% of median | 142 | 6.8 |
| 1957 | 782 | 10th lowest of 13 · 215% of median | 137 | 2.9 |
| 1958 | 363 | 7th lowest of 13 · 100% of median | 142 | 2.0 |
| 1974 | 0 | 1st lowest of 13 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1975 | 0 | 1st lowest of 13 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1976 | 0 | 1st lowest of 13 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1979 | 0 | 1st lowest of 13 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1981 | 0 | 1st lowest of 13 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1983 | 0 | 1st lowest of 13 · 0% of median | 3 | 0.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 13 recorded years (-30 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 | 4 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 843 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 12% of the irrigation seasons in 1951-1983 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.