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· every download of this record carries its certificate idWEST CANAL
Structure dossier · WDID 4100577 · DITCH · UNCOMPAHGRE RIVER · DWR record
West Canal is a ditch on Uncompahgre River in Colorado. This page is its public record: the water it has a right to, whether it may take it today, and its history, compiled from the Colorado Division of Water Resources.
Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR structure ↗ Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR diversion records ↗ Source Our computation, scored against a reference · scored against DWR's call analysis, see /methods
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-11-14 13:21 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20261019 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (8b21f50) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.
Where this structure is measured
| Gage | Flowing now | Record | How we know |
|---|---|---|---|
| WEST CANAL TUNNEL WSTTUNCO | 13.8 cfs | 2016–2026, 2,922 days | DWR telemetry mapping |
| WEST CANAL 4100577A | — | 2011–2011, 193 days | named for this WDID |
A green link is DWR's own: either its telemetry inventory maps this WDID to that station, or the station is named for this WDID (0700553 → 0700553A). An amber one is ours — the station sits within 250 m and shares a distinctive word with this structure's name, which is a strong hint rather than a DWR statement that this gage meters this structure. Wrong? Tell us.
Flowing now
13.8 cfs as of 2026-11-14 10:30 (2.9 h ago)
Provisional 15-minute telemetry from WSTTUNCO ↗ (WEST CANAL TUNNEL). Raw, not the approved record — it is never merged into the diversion history below. DWR publishes the official diversion record after the water year closes and is approved, which is why that record ends months back while this reads minutes ago.
In short
In a median year over its last 15 recorded years it diverts 50,019 acre-feet.
Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (2 checked). The detail, with its method, is in the cards below.
Download this structure
Everything on this page as data you can work with — and a README that makes it citable: the HydroBase snapshot it was built from, the build commit, what every column means, the method behind each derived figure, and that method's stated limits.
Log in to download the record Print / save as PDF
Downloads (the .zip and six CSV tables) need a free account — create one or log in. Everything in them is on this page.
Why the account? It is not a paywall and not a mailing list. Automated scrapers were requesting tens of thousands of these files a day, and each one rebuilds this whole record, which slowed the site for the people reading it. An account is the simplest way to keep downloads open to people and closed to bots.
What is in the bundle
rights.csv— every decreed right, most senior first, with admin numbers, dates, amounts, uses and case numbers.annual_use.csv— recorded diversion by year, with releases accounted separately.curtailment_now.csv— each right's current priority status and how often it was out across analog years.court_cases.csv— the cases attached to its rights.co_parties.csv— the other structures that were parties to those cases. Not available anywhere else.call_climatology.csv— how often each right has been out of priority by week of season, with confidence intervals and the seasons the record could actually judge.README.txt— provenance, methods, limits, disclaimer, and links back to DWR's own records for verification.
Where it sits
Location as DWR records it (diversion). Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.
Which of its rights are out of priority?
The outlook for the weeks ahead is not computable for this structure: no decreed right on file, so there is no priority to test.
Recorded use (last 15 years on record)
Years far under the decreed amount? That gap has a name — paper water vs. wet water, explained on this structure.
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 50,019 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2010, came in at 44,135 AF — 88% of that, and 2nd 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 57,395 | 15th lowest of 15 · 115% of median | 194 | 214.0 |
| 1997 | 52,596 | 12th lowest of 15 · 105% of median | 262 | 195.0 |
| 1998 | 52,099 | 11th lowest of 15 · 104% of median | 303 | 170.0 |
| 1999 | 29,306 | 1st lowest of 15 · 59% of median | 198 | 125.0 |
| 2000 | 47,275 | 5th lowest of 15 · 94% of median | 213 | 181.0 |
| 2001 | 48,954 | 7th lowest of 15 · 98% of median | 205 | 173.0 |
| 2002 | 47,235 | 4th lowest of 15 · 94% of median | 205 | 150.0 |
| 2003 | 53,845 | 14th lowest of 15 · 108% of median | 214 | 181.0 |
| 2004 | 53,141 | 13th lowest of 15 · 106% of median | 212 | 159.0 |
| 2005 | 51,052 | 9th lowest of 15 · 102% of median | 217 | 169.0 |
| 2006 | 51,671 | 10th lowest of 15 · 103% of median | 208 | 180.0 |
| 2007 | 50,019 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 198 | 184.0 |
| 2008 | 48,866 | 6th lowest of 15 · 98% of median | 208 | 247.0 |
| 2009 | 44,777 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 90% of median | 208 | 151.0 |
| 2010 | 44,135 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 88% of median | 216 | 131.0 |
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 | absent | no water rights cached for this WDID |
| diversion record | present | 16251 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | continuous | 100% of the irrigation seasons in 1955-2010 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.
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