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FRED SHAEFFER DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4001135 · 1 · ROBERTS CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 03:01 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 1944-05-15 — 1838th 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: MCINTYRE NO 2 WELL (1943-05-01). Immediately behind: STONE BASIN RESERVOIR (1944-06-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34468.0 | 1944-05-15 | 1954-03-20 | 0.8 | 0.0 | C | IRR | J251 |
| 56613.51255 | 1990-05-01 | 2005-12-31 | 1.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR |
Legal record & documents
2 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
05CW0144, CA3503.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
05CW0144 | 1 | 2005-12-31 | S |
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 15 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 93 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 70 AF — 75% of that, and 6th 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 | 207 | 13th lowest of 15 · 223% of median | 107 | 1.7 |
| 2011 | 213 | 14th lowest of 15 · 229% of median | 114 | 1.5 |
| 2012 | 93 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 69 | 0.9 |
| 2013 | 179 | 12th lowest of 15 · 192% of median | 107 | 1.4 |
| 2014 | 232 | 15th lowest of 15 · 250% of median | 94 | 1.9 |
| 2015 | 178 | 11th lowest of 15 · 191% of median | 76 | 1.6 |
| 2016 | 127 | 9th lowest of 15 · 137% of median | 75 | 1.5 |
| 2017 | 132 | 10th lowest of 15 · 142% of median | 48 | 2.0 |
| 2018 | 14 | 1st lowest of 15 · 15% of median | 17 | 0.6 |
| 2019 | 64 | 5th lowest of 15 · 69% of median | 28 | 1.6 |
| 2020 | 32 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 34% of median | 21 | 1.4 |
| 2021 | 49 | 4th lowest of 15 · 53% of median | 51 | 0.8 |
| 2022 | 72 | 7th lowest of 15 · 77% of median | 39 | 2.0 |
| 2023 | 46 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 50% of median | 27 | 1.2 |
| 2024 | 70 | 6th lowest of 15 · 75% of median | 52 | 1.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-12 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.008).
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 | 5281 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 46% 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.