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WILLOW AND OWL DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 3801104 · 1 · WILLOW CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 00:39 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 1886-07-20 — 209th most senior of the 4788 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: CLAVEL DITCH (1886-06-15). Immediately behind: BANE DITCH (1886-07-23).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13350.0 | 1886-07-20 | 1889-05-11 | 13.0 | 0.0 | C | IRRCOMRECFIRDOMSTK | 160 |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA0132, 91CW0243.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA0132 | 1 | 1889-05-11 | O |
91CW0243 | 2 | 1889-05-11 | 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 383 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 535 AF — 140% of that, and 11th lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.
This structure records both diversions and reservoir releases — they are separate water movements and are accounted separately below.
| 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 | Released (AF) | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 883 | 14th lowest of 15 · 230% of median | 1,043 | 102 | 6.5 |
| 1998 | 559 | 12th lowest of 15 · 146% of median | 1,077 | 79 | 5.4 |
| 1999 | 701 | 13th lowest of 15 · 183% of median | 986 | 107 | 4.9 |
| 2003 | 128 | 5th lowest of 15 · 33% of median | — | 147 | 0.4 |
| 2004 | 70 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 18% of median | — | 42 | 1.0 |
| 2005 | 84 | 4th lowest of 15 · 22% of median | — | 176 | 0.5 |
| 2006 | 383 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | — | 79 | 2.7 |
| 2007 | 325 | 7th lowest of 15 · 85% of median | — | 91 | 2.0 |
| 2008 | 459 | 10th lowest of 15 · 120% of median | — | 105 | 4.1 |
| 2009 | 2 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 0% of median | — | 107 | 0.0 |
| 2010 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | — | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2021 | 410 | 9th lowest of 15 · 107% of median | — | 112 | 4.2 |
| 2022 | 262 | 6th lowest of 15 · 68% of median | — | 101 | 3.7 |
| 2023 | 913 | 15th lowest of 15 · 238% of median | — | 116 | 12.0 |
| 2024 | 535 | 11th lowest of 15 · 140% of median | — | 117 | 9.0 |
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 | 3356 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 32% of the irrigation seasons in 1975-2024 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.