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DARCY DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4700586 · 1 · ROCK CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:06 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 1919-07-09 — 508th 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: LITTLE CHIEF DITCH HEADGATE NO 2 (1917-10-16). Immediately behind: DARCY RES (1921-07-09).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26727.25391 | 1919-07-09 | 1932-11-26 | 24.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 638 |
| 50769.31607 | 1936-07-15 | 1989-12-31 | 2.0 | 0.0 | C | STK |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
89CW0129, CA0238, 11CW0037.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
89CW0129 | 1 | 1989-12-31 | S |
CA0238 | 1 | 1932-11-26 | S |
11CW0037 | 1 | 1932-11-26 | 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 15 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 253 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 27 AF — 11% of that, and 5th 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 | 191 | 7th lowest of 15 · 76% of median | 65 | 4.8 |
| 2009 | 253 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 105 | 3.0 |
| 2010 | 715 | 11th lowest of 15 · 283% of median | 93 | 9.9 |
| 2011 | 2,182 | 14th lowest of 15 · 862% of median | 75 | 35.5 |
| 2013 | 258 | 9th lowest of 15 · 102% of median | 37 | 3.7 |
| 2014 | 385 | 10th lowest of 15 · 152% of median | 33 | 8.0 |
| 2015 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 3 | 0.0 |
| 2016 | 157 | 6th lowest of 15 · 62% of median | 42 | 1.9 |
| 2017 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 3 | 0.0 |
| 2018 | 724 | 12th lowest of 15 · 286% of median | 76 | 5.0 |
| 2019 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2021 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2023 | 3,172 | 15th lowest of 15 · 1254% of median | 117 | 18.2 |
| 2024 | 950 | 13th lowest of 15 · 376% of median | 112 | 28.0 |
| 2025 | 27 | 5th lowest of 15 · 11% of median | 9 | 1.9 |
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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 2777 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 17% 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.