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BIG FOUR DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4500525 · 1 · CACHE CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 00:36 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 1896-05-19 — 154th most senior of the 1378 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: CRANN PIPELINE DITCH (1903-09-14). Immediately behind: GUSTAFSON WASTE WATER D (1893-01-10).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21513.16941 | 1896-05-19 | 1908-12-03 | 0.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 118BB |
| 23336.21992 | 1910-03-19 | 1913-11-25 | 1.8 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 143BBA |
Legal record & documents
2 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA1632, W3840.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1632 | 1 | 1913-11-25 | S |
W3840 | 1 | 1908-12-03 | 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 12 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 49 AF. Its most recent year on record, 1997, came in at 86 AF — 176% of that, and 8th lowest of the 12 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 14 | 3rd lowest of 12 · 29% of median | 6 | 1.8 |
| 1978 | 44 | 6th lowest of 12 · 90% of median | 14 | 1.8 |
| 1979 | 29 | 5th lowest of 12 · 59% of median | 10 | 1.8 |
| 1980 | 54 | 7th lowest of 12 · 110% of median | 16 | 1.8 |
| 1983 | 125 | 10th lowest of 12 · 255% of median | 36 | 1.8 |
| 1984 | 148 | 11th lowest of 12 · 302% of median | 48 | 1.8 |
| 1985 | 124 | 9th lowest of 12 · 253% of median | 25 | 2.6 |
| 1986 | 213 | 12th lowest of 12 · 435% of median | 49 | 2.6 |
| 1987 | 0 | 1st lowest of 12 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1995 | 0 | 1st lowest of 12 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 1996 | 18 | 4th lowest of 12 · 37% of median | 6 | 1.8 |
| 1997 | 86 | 8th lowest of 12 · 176% of median | 27 | 1.8 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use shows no clear trend over its last 12 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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 239 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 5% of the irrigation seasons in 1975-1997 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.