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SMITH DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 4700884 · 1 · SOUTH FORK CANADIAN RIVE · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 02:15 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 1899-09-15 — 292nd 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: QUEEN DITCH (1898-10-11). Immediately behind: CARPENTER DITCH 2 (1899-10-15).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18155.0 | 1899-09-15 | 1902-04-23 | 21.3 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 299(284) |
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
CA1519.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1519 | 1 | 1902-04-23 | 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 737 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 999 AF — 136% of that, and 12th 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 | 673 | 7th lowest of 15 · 91% of median | 70 | 8.0 |
| 2009 | 250 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 34% of median | 27 | 7.0 |
| 2010 | 1,174 | 14th lowest of 15 · 159% of median | 70 | 18.0 |
| 2012 | 561 | 4th lowest of 15 · 76% of median | 160 | 2.8 |
| 2013 | 609 | 6th lowest of 15 · 83% of median | 154 | 4.3 |
| 2014 | 878 | 10th lowest of 15 · 119% of median | 283 | 3.4 |
| 2015 | 895 | 11th lowest of 15 · 121% of median | 186 | 5.5 |
| 2016 | 211 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 29% of median | 78 | 1.6 |
| 2017 | 1,022 | 13th lowest of 15 · 139% of median | 134 | 6.6 |
| 2018 | 110 | 1st lowest of 15 · 15% of median | 30 | 2.5 |
| 2019 | 599 | 5th lowest of 15 · 81% of median | 96 | 4.0 |
| 2022 | 2,348 | 15th lowest of 15 · 319% of median | 58 | 21.6 |
| 2023 | 775 | 9th lowest of 15 · 105% of median | 57 | 20.3 |
| 2024 | 737 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 107 | 10.2 |
| 2025 | 999 | 12th lowest of 15 · 136% of median | 171 | 12.0 |
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 | 5435 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 36% 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.