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JOHN W MUSSER DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4000882 · 1 · ESCALANTE CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 01:24 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 1888-12-20 — 650th 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: BASS DITCH (1888-05-01). Immediately behind: HARRY WALKER DITCH (1890-03-01).
Decreed rights (2)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19773.14234 | 1888-12-20 | 1906-02-17 | 2.22 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 7 |
| 29260.20502 | 1906-02-18 | 1937-05-28 | 1.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | H57 |
Legal record & documents
2 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA2563, CA0456.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA2563 | 1 | 1937-05-28 | S |
CA0456 | 1 | 1906-02-17 | 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 326 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 349 AF — 107% of that, and 9th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 264 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 81% of median | 53 | 3.5 |
| 2011 | 286 | 6th lowest of 15 · 88% of median | 76 | 3.0 |
| 2012 | 1,245 | 15th lowest of 15 · 382% of median | 195 | 4.0 |
| 2013 | 357 | 10th lowest of 15 · 110% of median | 102 | 2.0 |
| 2014 | 544 | 13th lowest of 15 · 167% of median | 155 | 3.0 |
| 2015 | 288 | 7th lowest of 15 · 88% of median | 94 | 2.5 |
| 2016 | 365 | 11th lowest of 15 · 112% of median | 149 | 2.2 |
| 2017 | 326 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 128 | 2.0 |
| 2018 | 271 | 4th lowest of 15 · 83% of median | 101 | 1.8 |
| 2019 | 276 | 5th lowest of 15 · 85% of median | 113 | 1.8 |
| 2020 | 614 | 14th lowest of 15 · 188% of median | 171 | 3.0 |
| 2021 | 258 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 79% of median | 107 | 1.2 |
| 2022 | 482 | 12th lowest of 15 · 148% of median | 174 | 2.5 |
| 2023 | 197 | 1st lowest of 15 · 60% of median | 109 | 1.2 |
| 2024 | 349 | 9th lowest of 15 · 107% of median | 124 | 2.0 |
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 (8/10 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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 8240 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 71% of the irrigation seasons in 1970-2024 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.