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LEGAL TENDER DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4700720 · 1 · NORTH FORK NORTH PLATTE · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:11 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 1889-06-01 — 207th 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: FREEMAN DITCH (1889-06-01). Immediately behind: LUCKPENNY DITCH (1889-06-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14397.0 | 1889-06-01 | 1892-09-19 | 7.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 95(85) |
| 14762.0 | 1890-06-01 | 1902-04-23 | 10.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 110 |
| 30280.14397 | 1889-06-01 | 1939-06-20 | 47.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 657 |
Legal record & documents
5 decreed actions on record across
5 court cases:
94CW0076, 84CW0028, CA0286, CA1523, CA0922.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
94CW0076 | 1 | 1984-12-31 | S |
84CW0028 | 1 | 1984-12-31 | S |
CA0286 | 1 | 1939-06-20 | S |
CA1523 | 1 | 1902-04-23 | O |
CA0922 | 1 | 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 3,645 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 5,659 AF — 155% of that, and 13th 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 | 1,807 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 50% of median | 107 | 20.0 |
| 2009 | 1,992 | 4th lowest of 15 · 55% of median | 120 | 23.0 |
| 2010 | 1,986 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 54% of median | 108 | 27.0 |
| 2012 | 4,584 | 12th lowest of 15 · 126% of median | 160 | 24.0 |
| 2013 | 2,450 | 7th lowest of 15 · 67% of median | 63 | 26.3 |
| 2014 | 2,026 | 5th lowest of 15 · 56% of median | 57 | 22.1 |
| 2015 | 3,645 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 84 | 27.1 |
| 2016 | 4,354 | 11th lowest of 15 · 120% of median | 160 | 19.6 |
| 2017 | 1,259 | 1st lowest of 15 · 34% of median | 32 | 20.7 |
| 2018 | 2,201 | 6th lowest of 15 · 60% of median | 72 | 23.2 |
| 2019 | 4,061 | 9th lowest of 15 · 111% of median | 82 | 46.8 |
| 2020 | 4,163 | 10th lowest of 15 · 114% of median | 69 | 32.3 |
| 2022 | 5,698 | 14th lowest of 15 · 156% of median | 79 | 54.5 |
| 2023 | 8,283 | 15th lowest of 15 · 227% of median | 145 | 57.0 |
| 2024 | 5,659 | 13th lowest of 15 · 155% of median | 102 | 53.1 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is rising over its last 15 recorded years (+245 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.006).
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 | 5296 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 35% of the irrigation seasons in 1954-2025 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.