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SHERIFF DITCH (COLORADO RIVER)
Structure dossier · WDID 5100883 · 1 · COLORADO RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:52 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (2deb1d7) — 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 1884-12-31 — 173rd most senior of the 2208 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: RORIC DITCH (1884-08-31). Immediately behind: REEDER CREEK NO 2 DITCH (1885-05-31).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20676.12784 | 1884-12-31 | 1911-08-03 | 3.75 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 156 |
| 30870.23496 | 1914-05-01 | 1937-11-05 | 5.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 392 |
| 34638.0 | 1944-11-01 | 1952-11-07 | 10.0 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOM | 500 |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
CA0814, CA0657, CA0183.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA0814 | 1 | 1952-11-07 | S |
CA0657 | 1 | 1937-11-05 | S |
CA0183 | 1 | 1911-08-03 | 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 906 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 1,366 AF — 151% 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,541 | 13th lowest of 15 · 170% of median | 72 | 13.0 |
| 2011 | 1,872 | 15th lowest of 15 · 207% of median | 81 | 20.0 |
| 2012 | 710 | 4th lowest of 15 · 78% of median | 88 | 6.0 |
| 2013 | 863 | 7th lowest of 15 · 95% of median | 76 | 8.0 |
| 2014 | 1,749 | 14th lowest of 15 · 193% of median | 75 | 20.0 |
| 2015 | 1,327 | 11th lowest of 15 · 146% of median | 59 | 20.0 |
| 2016 | 690 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 76% of median | 48 | 10.0 |
| 2017 | 1,038 | 9th lowest of 15 · 115% of median | 51 | 16.5 |
| 2018 | 1,111 | 10th lowest of 15 · 123% of median | 87 | 12.0 |
| 2019 | 906 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 95 | 10.0 |
| 2020 | 808 | 6th lowest of 15 · 89% of median | 83 | 15.0 |
| 2021 | 698 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 77% of median | 73 | 7.0 |
| 2022 | 804 | 5th lowest of 15 · 89% of median | 84 | 9.0 |
| 2023 | 668 | 1st lowest of 15 · 74% of median | 72 | 8.0 |
| 2024 | 1,366 | 12th lowest of 15 · 151% of median | 83 | 11.9 |
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 | 3 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 3386 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 32% of the irrigation seasons in 1975-2024 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.