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BIG SKY DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 3801855 · 1 · SNOWMASS CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:15 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 1988-02-17 — 3061st 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: PARK-SNOWSTORM NO 2 RES (1988-01-31). Immediately behind: BIG SKY POND NO 1 (1988-02-17).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50451.0 | 1988-02-17 | 1988-12-31 | 3.111 | 0.0 | C | IRRSTKOTH |
Legal record & documents
6 decreed actions on record across
5 court cases:
95CW0184, 95CW0097, 88CW0434, 16CW3031, 01CW0297.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
95CW0184 | 2 | 1988-12-31 | S |
95CW0097 | 1 | 1988-12-31 | S |
88CW0434 | 1 | 1988-12-31 | S |
16CW3031 | 1 | 1988-12-31 | S |
01CW0297 | 1 | 1988-12-31 | 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 217 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 37 AF — 17% of that, and 2nd 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 799 | 12th lowest of 15 · 368% of median | 157 | 2.8 |
| 1995 | 1,935 | 15th lowest of 15 · 892% of median | 365 | 2.8 |
| 1996 | 1,634 | 14th lowest of 15 · 753% of median | 331 | 2.8 |
| 1997 | 1,210 | 13th lowest of 15 · 558% of median | 306 | 2.0 |
| 1998 | 797 | 11th lowest of 15 · 367% of median | 224 | 3.3 |
| 1999 | 201 | 6th lowest of 15 · 93% of median | 209 | 1.0 |
| 2003 | 20 | 1st lowest of 15 · 9% of median | 68 | 0.2 |
| 2014 | 217 | 7th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 94 | 1.9 |
| 2015 | 406 | 9th lowest of 15 · 187% of median | 149 | 1.9 |
| 2016 | 182 | 4th lowest of 15 · 84% of median | 92 | 1.8 |
| 2018 | 43 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 20% of median | 84 | 0.3 |
| 2020 | 491 | 10th lowest of 15 · 226% of median | 153 | 1.6 |
| 2021 | 217 | 7th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 35 | 3.3 |
| 2023 | 199 | 5th lowest of 15 · 92% of median | 43 | 2.4 |
| 2024 | 37 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 17% of median | 95 | 0.2 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-34 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.006).
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 | 2650 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 39% of the irrigation seasons in 1993-2024 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.