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EMILY DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4300625 · 1 · PICEANCE CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:14 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (a1c9146) — 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 1886-11-05 — 66th most senior of the 3293 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: THIRTEENMILE RANCH D AP (1886-10-20). Immediately behind: LOWLAND DITCH (1886-11-06).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13458.0 | 1886-11-05 | 1889-05-10 | 2.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 53 |
| 32172.24592 | 1917-05-01 | 1942-05-26 | 3.85 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 467-Z5 |
Legal record & documents
2 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA0624, CA0133.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA0624 | 1 | 1942-05-26 | S |
CA0133 | 1 | 1889-05-10 | O |
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 413 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 408 AF — 99% of that, and 7th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 1,493 | 14th lowest of 15 · 362% of median | 143 | 8.9 |
| 2012 | 752 | 10th lowest of 15 · 182% of median | 178 | 2.7 |
| 2013 | 413 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 113 | 2.0 |
| 2014 | 1,032 | 12th lowest of 15 · 250% of median | 163 | 7.8 |
| 2015 | 1,488 | 13th lowest of 15 · 360% of median | 166 | 5.9 |
| 2016 | 202 | 4th lowest of 15 · 49% of median | 51 | 2.1 |
| 2017 | 348 | 6th lowest of 15 · 84% of median | 41 | 4.9 |
| 2018 | 63 | 1st lowest of 15 · 15% of median | 21 | 2.0 |
| 2019 | 676 | 9th lowest of 15 · 164% of median | 173 | 2.0 |
| 2020 | 198 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 48% of median | 64 | 2.0 |
| 2021 | 96 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 23% of median | 31 | 2.1 |
| 2022 | 203 | 5th lowest of 15 · 49% of median | 63 | 4.6 |
| 2023 | 2,396 | 15th lowest of 15 · 580% of median | 181 | 7.4 |
| 2024 | 1,011 | 11th lowest of 15 · 245% of median | 186 | 10.9 |
| 2025 | 408 | 7th lowest of 15 · 99% of median | 114 | 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 | 9751 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 61% of the irrigation seasons in 1951-2025 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.