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BIG WILLOW DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4700513 · 1 · WILLOW CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 02:51 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 1885-06-01 — 58th most senior of the 1262 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: ARAPAHOE DITCH (1885-06-01). Immediately behind: YOCUM NO 2 (1885-06-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12936.0 | 1885-06-01 | 1892-09-19 | 5.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 38(36) |
| 14380.0 | 1889-05-15 | 1892-09-19 | 1.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 182(163) |
| 30280.13301 | 1886-06-01 | 1939-06-20 | 31.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 641 |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA0286, CA0922.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA0286 | 1 | 1939-06-20 | S |
CA0922 | 2 | 1892-09-19 | 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 578 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 553 AF — 96% of that, and 6th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 1,250 | 11th lowest of 15 · 216% of median | 44 | 27.0 |
| 2009 | 1,391 | 13th lowest of 15 · 241% of median | 58 | 20.0 |
| 2010 | 1,976 | 14th lowest of 15 · 342% of median | 52 | 26.0 |
| 2011 | 1,299 | 12th lowest of 15 · 225% of median | 31 | 25.0 |
| 2012 | 571 | 7th lowest of 15 · 99% of median | 93 | 5.4 |
| 2013 | 1,124 | 10th lowest of 15 · 194% of median | 49 | 16.6 |
| 2014 | 755 | 9th lowest of 15 · 131% of median | 44 | 10.9 |
| 2015 | 79 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 14% of median | 42 | 1.0 |
| 2016 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2017 | 578 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 60 | 5.1 |
| 2019 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 2 | 0.0 |
| 2020 | 3,320 | 15th lowest of 15 · 574% of median | 74 | 28.1 |
| 2021 | 395 | 5th lowest of 15 · 68% of median | 40 | 5.7 |
| 2023 | 248 | 4th lowest of 15 · 43% of median | 17 | 7.8 |
| 2024 | 553 | 6th lowest of 15 · 96% of median | 33 | 8.7 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-74 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.042).
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 | 3159 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 21% of the irrigation seasons in 1954-2024 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.