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LADDER GULCH DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4200609 · 1 · LADDER CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:49 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 1909-04-16 — 238th most senior of the 726 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: ROGERS DITCH (1908-06-18). Immediately behind: MCDONALD DITCH (1910-11-26).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22848.21655 | 1909-04-16 | 1916-06-01 | 1.12 | 0.0 | C | IRR | |
| 50403.43251 | 1968-06-01 | 1988-12-31 | 2.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR |
Legal record & documents
7 decreed actions on record across
5 court cases:
97CW0177, 96CW0022, 88CW0171, CA2635, 75CW0296.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
97CW0177 | 1 | 1998-12-31 | S |
96CW0022 | 1 | 1988-12-31 | S |
88CW0171 | 2 | 1988-12-31 | S |
CA2635 | 2 | 1916-06-01 | S |
75CW0296 | 1 | 1916-06-01 | 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 11 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 44 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2015, came in at 0 AF — 0% of that, and 1st lowest of the 11 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 44 | 6th lowest of 11 · 100% of median | 27 | 1.5 |
| 2005 | 292 | 11th lowest of 11 · 664% of median | 92 | 2.5 |
| 2006 | 54 | 8th lowest of 11 · 123% of median | 38 | 1.0 |
| 2007 | 224 | 10th lowest of 11 · 509% of median | 76 | 3.5 |
| 2008 | 61 | 9th lowest of 11 · 139% of median | 45 | 1.5 |
| 2009 | 51 | 7th lowest of 11 · 116% of median | 61 | 0.8 |
| 2010 | 8 | 4th lowest of 11 · 18% of median | 43 | 0.1 |
| 2011 | 30 | 5th lowest of 11 · 68% of median | 56 | 0.3 |
| 2012 | 0 | 1st lowest of 11 · 0% of median | 2 | 0.0 |
| 2013 | 0 | 1st lowest of 11 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2015 | 0 | 1st lowest of 11 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 11 recorded years (-10 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.006).
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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 442 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 10% of the irrigation seasons in 1995-2015 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.