Hydrohistorian
← My Water · Print / save as PDF
NICHOLSON DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5800797 · 1 · NORTH FORK MAD CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 04:35 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 1905-08-01 — 556th 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: HARVEY WELL 4 (1918-07-07). Immediately behind: FINGER ROCK DITCH (1912-09-12).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25383.20301 | 1905-08-01 | 1919-07-03 | 5.0 | 0.0 | C | IRRPWR | 1756A |
| 54786.37887 | 1953-09-24 | 2000-12-31 | 5.0 | 0.0 | C | IRRRECFISFIRSTKWLD |
Legal record & documents
8 decreed actions on record across
4 court cases:
00CW0080, CA1213, 82CW0066, 81CW0231.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
00CW0080 | 1 | 2000-12-31 | S |
CA1213 | 2 | 1919-07-03 | S |
82CW0066 | 1 | 1919-07-03 | S |
81CW0231 | 4 | 1919-07-03 | 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 454 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2023, came in at 109 AF — 24% 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 484 | 9th lowest of 15 · 107% of median | 99 | 3.5 |
| 2006 | 685 | 13th lowest of 15 · 151% of median | 103 | 4.0 |
| 2007 | 664 | 12th lowest of 15 · 146% of median | 104 | 5.0 |
| 2008 | 454 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 77 | 3.5 |
| 2009 | 639 | 11th lowest of 15 · 141% of median | 96 | 4.0 |
| 2010 | 419 | 7th lowest of 15 · 92% of median | 104 | 3.5 |
| 2013 | 695 | 14th lowest of 15 · 153% of median | 101 | 4.8 |
| 2014 | 710 | 15th lowest of 15 · 156% of median | 113 | 5.1 |
| 2015 | 27 | 1st lowest of 15 · 6% of median | 44 | 0.3 |
| 2016 | 184 | 5th lowest of 15 · 40% of median | 74 | 1.3 |
| 2017 | 501 | 10th lowest of 15 · 110% of median | 92 | 5.0 |
| 2018 | 344 | 6th lowest of 15 · 76% of median | 112 | 1.8 |
| 2020 | 44 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 10% of median | 112 | 0.2 |
| 2022 | 114 | 4th lowest of 15 · 25% of median | 37 | 2.5 |
| 2023 | 109 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 24% of median | 96 | 1.0 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-28 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.029).
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 | 7061 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 40% of the irrigation seasons in 1940-2023 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.