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LAVA CREEK DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5200587 · 1 · PINEY RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:14 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 1886-05-15 — 6th most senior of the 562 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: BEAR CREEK DITCH (1886-05-01). Immediately behind: DRY PARK DITCH (1887-03-20).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13284.0 | 1886-05-15 | 1890-11-20 | 0.2 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 6 |
| 29437.20223 | 1905-05-15 | 1946-08-30 | 0.4 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 132 |
Legal record & documents
2 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA1038, 11/20/1890.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1038 | 1 | 1946-08-30 | S |
11/20/1890 | 1 | 1890-11-20 | 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 84 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2021, came in at 60 AF — 71% 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 105 | 11th lowest of 15 · 125% of median | 89 | 0.6 |
| 1995 | 84 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 72 | 0.6 |
| 1996 | 141 | 13th lowest of 15 · 168% of median | 81 | 0.9 |
| 1997 | 55 | 4th lowest of 15 · 66% of median | 56 | 0.5 |
| 1998 | 47 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 56% of median | 54 | 0.8 |
| 1999 | 35 | 1st lowest of 15 · 42% of median | 36 | 0.5 |
| 2000 | 51 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 61% of median | 52 | 0.5 |
| 2003 | 140 | 12th lowest of 15 · 167% of median | 106 | 1.0 |
| 2004 | 67 | 6th lowest of 15 · 80% of median | 69 | 0.5 |
| 2011 | 80 | 7th lowest of 15 · 95% of median | 75 | 0.6 |
| 2014 | 99 | 10th lowest of 15 · 118% of median | 99 | 0.5 |
| 2016 | 181 | 15th lowest of 15 · 216% of median | 93 | 1.3 |
| 2017 | 94 | 9th lowest of 15 · 112% of median | 71 | 0.8 |
| 2019 | 156 | 14th lowest of 15 · 186% of median | 46 | 2.4 |
| 2021 | 60 | 5th lowest of 15 · 71% of median | 62 | 0.5 |
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 | 2088 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 21% of the irrigation seasons in 1975-2021 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.