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SMITH DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5800864 · 1 · DEEP CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:08 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 1887-09-05 — 277th 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: CROWNER RESERVOIR (1904-09-19). Immediately behind: INDEPENDENT HIGHLINE DITCH (1901-06-04).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19985.13762 | 1887-09-05 | 1904-09-20 | 1.83 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 36A1/2 |
| 33782.25719 | 1920-06-01 | 1946-09-14 | 2.17 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 322Y |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
CA2475, CA0146.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA2475 | 1 | 1946-09-14 | S |
CA0146 | 2 | 1904-09-20 | 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 250 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 130 AF — 52% 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 282 | 9th lowest of 15 · 113% of median | 43 | 4.5 |
| 2010 | 294 | 10th lowest of 15 · 118% of median | 38 | 4.0 |
| 2012 | 160 | 6th lowest of 15 · 64% of median | 36 | 2.3 |
| 2013 | 886 | 15th lowest of 15 · 354% of median | 71 | 9.0 |
| 2014 | 510 | 12th lowest of 15 · 204% of median | 58 | 6.0 |
| 2015 | 71 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 28% of median | 57 | 0.6 |
| 2016 | 209 | 7th lowest of 15 · 84% of median | 94 | 2.5 |
| 2017 | 110 | 4th lowest of 15 · 44% of median | 38 | 3.1 |
| 2018 | 735 | 14th lowest of 15 · 294% of median | 61 | 6.5 |
| 2020 | 700 | 13th lowest of 15 · 280% of median | 53 | 7.2 |
| 2021 | 250 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 41 | 3.4 |
| 2022 | 341 | 11th lowest of 15 · 136% of median | 62 | 3.3 |
| 2023 | 7 | 1st lowest of 15 · 3% of median | 37 | 0.1 |
| 2024 | 52 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 21% of median | 31 | 0.9 |
| 2025 | 130 | 5th lowest of 15 · 52% of median | 98 | 1.5 |
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 | 4451 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 22% of the irrigation seasons in 1933-2025 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.