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LITTLE CHIEF DITCH HEADGATE NO 1
Structure dossier · WDID 4700726 · 1 · SUTTON CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 02:54 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 1917-10-16 — 506th 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: HARTZELL DITCH (1909-09-23). Immediately behind: LITTLE CHIEF DITCH HEADGATE NO 2 (1917-10-16).
Decreed rights (1)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26727.2476 | 1917-10-16 | 1932-11-26 | 4.49 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 637 |
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
CA0238.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA0238 | 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 135 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 0 AF — 0% of that, and 1st 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 263 | 14th lowest of 15 · 195% of median | 76 | 3.0 |
| 1986 | 38 | 5th lowest of 15 · 28% of median | 26 | 1.0 |
| 1992 | 203 | 12th lowest of 15 · 150% of median | 26 | 5.3 |
| 2010 | 105 | 7th lowest of 15 · 78% of median | 37 | 2.0 |
| 2011 | 189 | 11th lowest of 15 · 140% of median | 59 | 2.5 |
| 2012 | 19 | 4th lowest of 15 · 14% of median | 13 | 0.9 |
| 2014 | 95 | 6th lowest of 15 · 70% of median | 67 | 0.7 |
| 2015 | 847 | 15th lowest of 15 · 627% of median | 161 | 5.7 |
| 2016 | 146 | 10th lowest of 15 · 108% of median | 55 | 2.0 |
| 2018 | 141 | 9th lowest of 15 · 104% of median | 24 | 6.5 |
| 2019 | 214 | 13th lowest of 15 · 158% of median | 38 | 3.0 |
| 2020 | 135 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 95 | 0.9 |
| 2021 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 4 | 0.0 |
| 2024 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2025 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
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 | 1 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 1521 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 9% of the irrigation seasons in 1950-2025 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.