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SLACK DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4700879 · 1 · BUFFALO CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:02 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 1888-04-15 — 139th 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: ISH DITCH (1888-04-15). Immediately behind: MALLON DITCH (1888-04-20).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13985.0 | 1888-04-15 | 1892-09-19 | 9.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 59(57) |
| 30280.17684 | 1898-06-01 | 1939-06-20 | 10.75 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 689 |
Legal record & documents
2 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 | 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 504 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 272 AF — 54% 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 504 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 47 | 8.0 |
| 2010 | 664 | 9th lowest of 15 · 132% of median | 52 | 10.0 |
| 2011 | 979 | 11th lowest of 15 · 194% of median | 53 | 14.3 |
| 2013 | 927 | 10th lowest of 15 · 184% of median | 60 | 11.0 |
| 2014 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2015 | 152 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 30% of median | 78 | 1.0 |
| 2016 | 426 | 6th lowest of 15 · 84% of median | 55 | 4.6 |
| 2017 | 19 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 4% of median | 4 | 3.2 |
| 2019 | 434 | 7th lowest of 15 · 86% of median | 25 | 9.1 |
| 2020 | 1,718 | 15th lowest of 15 · 341% of median | 111 | 11.6 |
| 2021 | 234 | 4th lowest of 15 · 46% of median | 13 | 9.8 |
| 2022 | 1,558 | 14th lowest of 15 · 309% of median | 54 | 23.9 |
| 2023 | 1,002 | 12th lowest of 15 · 199% of median | 59 | 19.2 |
| 2024 | 1,235 | 13th lowest of 15 · 245% of median | 69 | 22.9 |
| 2025 | 272 | 5th lowest of 15 · 54% of median | 35 | 7.1 |
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 | 2530 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 16% 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.