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SPARKS DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5600573 · 1 · TALAMANTES CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:17 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 1882-04-01 — 3rd most senior of the 909 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: PRESTOPITZ DITCH (1882-04-01). Immediately behind: YARNELL DITCH NO 2 (1882-04-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11779.0 | 1882-04-01 | 1894-09-22 | 0.0 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOMSTK | 2 |
| 15806.0 | 1893-04-10 | 1894-09-22 | 0.33 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOMSTK | 9 |
| 44925.22035 | 1910-05-01 | 1973-12-31 | 5.67 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOMSTK |
Legal record & documents
6 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
W0472-73, W0470-73, 09/22/1894.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
W0472-73 | 2 | 1973-12-31 | O, S |
W0470-73 | 3 | 1973-12-31 | O, S |
09/22/1894 | 1 | 1894-09-22 | 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 377 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 263 AF — 70% of that, and 3rd 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 860 | 15th lowest of 15 · 228% of median | 111 | 7.5 |
| 2012 | 591 | 11th lowest of 15 · 157% of median | 139 | 3.2 |
| 2013 | 744 | 14th lowest of 15 · 197% of median | 173 | 3.3 |
| 2014 | 364 | 7th lowest of 15 · 97% of median | 122 | 2.5 |
| 2015 | 606 | 13th lowest of 15 · 161% of median | 170 | 3.0 |
| 2016 | 576 | 10th lowest of 15 · 153% of median | 128 | 4.6 |
| 2017 | 599 | 12th lowest of 15 · 159% of median | 107 | 5.1 |
| 2018 | 181 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 48% of median | 69 | 2.3 |
| 2019 | 377 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 136 | 2.9 |
| 2020 | 294 | 5th lowest of 15 · 78% of median | 86 | 3.0 |
| 2021 | 383 | 9th lowest of 15 · 102% of median | 142 | 2.5 |
| 2022 | 301 | 6th lowest of 15 · 80% of median | 128 | 2.3 |
| 2023 | 290 | 4th lowest of 15 · 77% of median | 92 | 2.0 |
| 2024 | 142 | 1st lowest of 15 · 38% of median | 46 | 2.0 |
| 2025 | 263 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 70% of median | 101 | 2.1 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-41 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.001).
How good is our record of it?
Grade B (8/10 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 | 6929 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 58% of the irrigation seasons in 1970-2025 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.