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CUNNINGHAM DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5900542 · 1 · MILL CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:14 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (2deb1d7) — 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 1896-06-01 — 184th most senior of the 2360 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: GILLASPEY WASTE WATER D (1896-05-31). Immediately behind: MARSTON DITCH (1896-09-01).
Decreed rights (4)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16954.0 | 1896-06-01 | 1906-09-14 | 7.25 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 109 |
| 23192.0 | 1913-07-01 | 1921-10-25 | 7.625 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 206 |
| 24623.0 | 1917-06-01 | 1921-10-25 | 4.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 221 |
| 26067.0 | 1921-05-15 | 1921-10-25 | 5.5 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 241 |
Legal record & documents
8 decreed actions on record across
4 court cases:
CA2021, 91CW0123, CA1635, CA1325.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA2021 | 2 | 1941-04-29 | S |
91CW0123 | 2 | 1941-04-29 | S |
CA1635 | 3 | 1921-10-25 | S |
CA1325 | 1 | 1906-09-14 | O |
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 361 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 1,503 AF — 416% of that, and 14th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 947 | 11th lowest of 15 · 262% of median | 147 | 5.3 |
| 2012 | 1,095 | 12th lowest of 15 · 303% of median | 162 | 6.6 |
| 2013 | 395 | 9th lowest of 15 · 109% of median | 156 | 1.9 |
| 2014 | 453 | 10th lowest of 15 · 126% of median | 114 | 4.5 |
| 2015 | 235 | 6th lowest of 15 · 65% of median | 121 | 1.4 |
| 2016 | 204 | 4th lowest of 15 · 56% of median | 144 | 1.0 |
| 2017 | 210 | 5th lowest of 15 · 58% of median | 98 | 2.9 |
| 2018 | 339 | 7th lowest of 15 · 94% of median | 125 | 3.3 |
| 2019 | 361 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 91 | 5.7 |
| 2020 | 203 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 56% of median | 67 | 2.4 |
| 2021 | 144 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 40% of median | 37 | 2.2 |
| 2022 | 134 | 1st lowest of 15 · 37% of median | 75 | 1.4 |
| 2023 | 1,180 | 13th lowest of 15 · 327% of median | 83 | 10.3 |
| 2024 | 2,088 | 15th lowest of 15 · 578% of median | 144 | 10.0 |
| 2025 | 1,503 | 14th lowest of 15 · 416% of median | 95 | 12.3 |
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 (8/10 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 | 4 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 6642 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 62% of the irrigation seasons in 1975-2025 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.