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WHITELEY NELSON RESERVOIR
Structure dossier · WDID 5803547 · 3 · WHIPPLE CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:11 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 1911-04-14 — 621st 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: WHITELEY NELSON LAT C DITCH (1911-04-14). Immediately behind: ELGIN CREEK DITCH (1889-07-13).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32835.22383 | 1911-04-14 | 1940-02-14 | 428.58 | 0.0 | A | IRR | 209AA |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
W0445-73, CA2323.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
W0445-73 | 1 | 1940-02-14 | S |
CA2323 | 2 | 1940-02-14 | 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 8 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 230 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2023, came in at 20 AF — 9% of that, and 1st lowest of the 3 years with a recorded volume.
This structure records both diversions and reservoir releases — they are separate water movements and are accounted separately below.
| 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 | Released (AF) | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | — | no recorded volume | 563 | 0 | — |
| 2012 | — | no recorded volume | 320 | 0 | — |
| 2013 | — | no recorded volume | 576 | 0 | — |
| 2014 | — | no recorded volume | 229 | 0 | — |
| 2015 | 230 | 2nd lowest of 3 · 100% of median | 208 | 15 | 8.5 |
| 2016 | — | no recorded volume | 580 | 0 | — |
| 2022 | 283 | 3rd lowest of 3 · 123% of median | — | 36 | 4.3 |
| 2023 | 20 | 1st lowest of 3 · 9% of median | — | 4 | 4.0 |
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 | fragment | 55 measured day(s) on file (under 180 -- a season, not a history) |
| record continuity | unknown | record too short to assess continuity (needs 2+ years of span and 180+ 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.