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MURPHY DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5800793 · 1 · COTTONWOOD GULCH · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:52 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 1895-10-31 — 206th most senior of the 3097 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: MILLER DITCH (1896-05-29). Immediately behind: MURPHY DITCH FETCHER EXT AND ENL (1895-10-31).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18158.1674 | 1895-10-31 | 1899-09-19 | 1.5 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOM | 135 |
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
09/19/1899.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
09/19/1899 | 1 | 1899-09-19 | 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 115 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2020, came in at 0 AF — 0% of that, and 1st 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | 188 | 10th lowest of 15 · 164% of median | 29 | 4.0 |
| 1983 | 107 | 7th lowest of 15 · 93% of median | 41 | 2.0 |
| 1984 | 175 | 9th lowest of 15 · 152% of median | 34 | 3.0 |
| 1985 | 93 | 6th lowest of 15 · 81% of median | 21 | 3.0 |
| 1986 | 214 | 11th lowest of 15 · 186% of median | 28 | 4.0 |
| 1987 | 115 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 30 | 4.0 |
| 1988 | 232 | 13th lowest of 15 · 202% of median | 44 | 4.0 |
| 1989 | 224 | 12th lowest of 15 · 195% of median | 56 | 3.0 |
| 1990 | 336 | 15th lowest of 15 · 292% of median | 93 | 4.5 |
| 1991 | 296 | 14th lowest of 15 · 257% of median | 54 | 4.3 |
| 1992 | 92 | 5th lowest of 15 · 80% of median | 98 | 0.8 |
| 1996 | 83 | 4th lowest of 15 · 72% of median | 22 | 2.5 |
| 2007 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2019 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
| 2020 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 1 | 0.0 |
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 | 2916 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 17% of the irrigation seasons in 1940-2020 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.