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COTTONWOOD CREEK DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4000529 · 1 · COTTONWOOD CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:34 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 1949-05-02 — 1882nd most senior of the 4661 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: ASPEN CREEK DITCH (1949-05-02). Immediately behind: COLUMBINE DITCH NO 1 (1949-09-23).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36281.0 | 1949-05-02 | 1954-03-20 | 6.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | J338 |
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
CA3503.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA3503 | 1 | 1954-03-20 | 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 60 AF. Its most recent year on record, 1987, came in at 60 AF — 100% of that, and 7th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 66 | 8th lowest of 13 · 110% of median | 35 | 2.0 |
| 1971 | 35 | 6th lowest of 13 · 58% of median | 21 | 1.0 |
| 1973 | 71 | 10th lowest of 13 · 118% of median | 27 | 2.0 |
| 1974 | 17 | 3rd lowest of 13 · 28% of median | 17 | 1.0 |
| 1975 | 149 | 13th lowest of 13 · 248% of median | 35 | 4.0 |
| 1976 | 20 | 5th lowest of 13 · 33% of median | 14 | 1.0 |
| 1977 | 0 | 1st lowest of 13 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1978 | 126 | 12th lowest of 13 · 210% of median | 31 | 6.0 |
| 1979 | 67 | 9th lowest of 13 · 112% of median | 14 | 5.0 |
| 1980 | 72 | 11th lowest of 13 · 120% of median | 31 | 1.5 |
| 1981 | 18 | 4th lowest of 13 · 30% of median | 21 | 1.0 |
| 1986 | 12 | 2nd lowest of 13 · 20% of median | 21 | 0.5 |
| 1987 | 60 | 7th lowest of 13 · 100% of median | 20 | 4.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use shows no clear trend over its last 13 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 | 288 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 8% of the irrigation seasons in 1970-1987 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.