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SMITH DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4400763 · 1 · ELKHEAD CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 02:17 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 1886-12-06 — 35th most senior of the 3562 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: J A MARTIN DITCH (1886-05-01). Immediately behind: DEER CK & MORAPOS D (1887-05-12).
Decreed rights (3)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13489.0 | 1886-12-06 | 1892-09-22 | 5.46 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 16 |
| 13965.0 | 1888-03-26 | 1892-09-22 | 2.2 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 22 |
| 36295.32627 | 1939-05-01 | 1960-09-01 | 13.33 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 47A |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA1278, 09/22/1892.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1278 | 1 | 1960-09-01 | S |
09/22/1892 | 2 | 1892-09-22 | 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 740 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 208 AF — 28% of that, and 3rd 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 | 2,313 | 15th lowest of 15 · 313% of median | 58 | 30.1 |
| 2012 | 676 | 7th lowest of 15 · 91% of median | 85 | 6.1 |
| 2013 | 439 | 4th lowest of 15 · 59% of median | 49 | 8.5 |
| 2014 | 996 | 10th lowest of 15 · 135% of median | 78 | 9.3 |
| 2015 | 1,457 | 13th lowest of 15 · 197% of median | 130 | 9.0 |
| 2016 | 558 | 5th lowest of 15 · 75% of median | 41 | 7.8 |
| 2017 | 1,191 | 12th lowest of 15 · 161% of median | 74 | 8.5 |
| 2018 | 1,715 | 14th lowest of 15 · 232% of median | 58 | 15.7 |
| 2019 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 2 | 0.0 |
| 2020 | 33 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 4% of median | 27 | 0.7 |
| 2021 | 1,058 | 11th lowest of 15 · 143% of median | 68 | 8.5 |
| 2022 | 740 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 60 | 8.5 |
| 2023 | 643 | 6th lowest of 15 · 87% of median | 45 | 8.5 |
| 2024 | 905 | 9th lowest of 15 · 122% of median | 55 | 10.2 |
| 2025 | 208 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 28% of median | 38 | 3.1 |
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 | on file | 3 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 5295 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 27% of the irrigation seasons in 1932-2025 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.