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SURPRISE SPRING & DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 3900671 · 4 · EAST RIFLE CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:23 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 1952-05-31 — 592nd 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: LISAS POND (1913-12-31). Immediately behind: MALLORY POND DITCH (1956-05-31).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44559.37406 | 1952-05-31 | 1972-12-31 | 1.2 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOM |
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
W1733.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
W1733 | 1 | 1972-12-31 | 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 59 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2022, came in at 0 AF — 0% 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 12 | 6th lowest of 15 · 20% of median | 15 | 0.4 |
| 1995 | 65 | 9th lowest of 15 · 110% of median | 119 | 0.3 |
| 1996 | 80 | 14th lowest of 15 · 136% of median | 178 | 0.3 |
| 1997 | 75 | 12th lowest of 15 · 127% of median | 179 | 0.2 |
| 1998 | 67 | 11th lowest of 15 · 114% of median | 160 | 0.2 |
| 1999 | 59 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 134 | 0.3 |
| 2000 | 25 | 7th lowest of 15 · 42% of median | 85 | 0.2 |
| 2001 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2016 | 75 | 12th lowest of 15 · 127% of median | 157 | 0.4 |
| 2017 | 132 | 15th lowest of 15 · 224% of median | 131 | 1.2 |
| 2018 | 65 | 9th lowest of 15 · 110% of median | 97 | 0.7 |
| 2019 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 10 | 0.0 |
| 2020 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 15 | 0.0 |
| 2021 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 2 | 0.0 |
| 2022 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 5 | 0.0 |
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 | 3280 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 31% of the irrigation seasons in 1973-2022 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.