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SPRUCE HILL DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5700598 · 1 · TROUT CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:55 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 1900-09-07 — 67th most senior of the 1003 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: BONAS DITCH LOWER HG (1895-07-17). Immediately behind: HOMESTEAD DITCH (1901-05-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18885.18512 | 1900-09-07 | 1902-09-15 | 1.17 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 66 |
| 21092.19478 | 1903-05-01 | 1908-09-23 | 0.66 | 0.0 | C | IRR | A74 |
Legal record & documents
4 decreed actions on record across
4 court cases:
CA2147, CA0762, 09/23/1908, 09/15/1902.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA2147 | 1 | 1912-07-02 | S |
CA0762 | 1 | 1912-07-02 | S |
09/23/1908 | 1 | 1908-09-23 | S |
09/15/1902 | 1 | 1902-09-15 | 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 90 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 32 AF — 36% of that, and 4th 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 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2012 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 2 | 0.0 |
| 2013 | 104 | 9th lowest of 15 · 116% of median | 72 | 1.0 |
| 2014 | 63 | 6th lowest of 15 · 70% of median | 32 | 1.1 |
| 2015 | 43 | 5th lowest of 15 · 48% of median | 44 | 0.5 |
| 2016 | 278 | 13th lowest of 15 · 309% of median | 96 | 4.2 |
| 2017 | 122 | 10th lowest of 15 · 136% of median | 117 | 1.2 |
| 2018 | 255 | 12th lowest of 15 · 283% of median | 161 | 3.4 |
| 2019 | 90 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 145 | 0.9 |
| 2020 | 78 | 7th lowest of 15 · 87% of median | 155 | 0.7 |
| 2021 | 10 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 11% of median | 25 | 0.3 |
| 2022 | 351 | 14th lowest of 15 · 390% of median | 87 | 3.0 |
| 2023 | 441 | 15th lowest of 15 · 490% of median | 69 | 4.6 |
| 2024 | 136 | 11th lowest of 15 · 151% of median | 138 | 0.8 |
| 2025 | 32 | 4th lowest of 15 · 36% of median | 69 | 0.2 |
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 | 3324 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 17% of the irrigation seasons in 1934-2025 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.