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RILEY DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 3900651 · 1 · PARACHUTE CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:01 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 1888-07-01 — 181st most senior of the 1758 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: HADLEY CONSOLIDATED D (1887-06-01). Immediately behind: STODDARD DITCH (1895-03-09).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21584.14062 | 1888-07-01 | 1909-04-16 | 0.5 | 0.0 | C | IRRINDDOMAUGPWROTH | 141A |
| 31031.15127 | 1891-06-01 | 1937-01-04 | 0.2 | 0.0 | C | IRRINDDOMAUGPWROTH | 200 |
| 31031.27818 | 1926-03-01 | 1937-01-04 | 0.3 | 0.0 | C | IRRINDDOMAUGPWROTH | 207P |
Legal record & documents
21 decreed actions on record across
4 court cases:
W2206, CA3124, 99CW0300, CA1357.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
W2206 | 8 | 1937-01-04 | S |
CA3124 | 2 | 1937-01-04 | S |
99CW0300 | 8 | 1937-01-04 | S |
CA1357 | 3 | 1909-04-16 | 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 46 AF. Its most recent year on record, 1997, came in at 131 AF — 285% of that, and 14th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1961 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1962 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1964 | 91 | 11th lowest of 15 · 198% of median | 93 | 0.5 |
| 1965 | 103 | 13th lowest of 15 · 224% of median | 105 | 0.5 |
| 1966 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 4 | 0.0 |
| 1967 | 23 | 7th lowest of 15 · 50% of median | 31 | 0.5 |
| 1968 | 61 | 10th lowest of 15 · 133% of median | 50 | 1.0 |
| 1969 | 54 | 9th lowest of 15 · 117% of median | 64 | 1.0 |
| 1973 | 181 | 15th lowest of 15 · 394% of median | 144 | 1.0 |
| 1993 | 46 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 93 | 0.3 |
| 1994 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1995 | 16 | 6th lowest of 15 · 35% of median | 29 | 0.3 |
| 1996 | 98 | 12th lowest of 15 · 213% of median | 47 | 2.8 |
| 1997 | 131 | 14th lowest of 15 · 285% of median | 40 | 2.8 |
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 | 3 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 1230 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 12% of the irrigation seasons in 1950-1997 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.