Hydrohistorian
← My Water · Print / save as PDF
GARDEN DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5900560 · 1 · GUNNISON RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:06 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 1893-04-01 — 168th 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: RHAMY DITCH (1892-05-01). Immediately behind: ELMER MARSHALL NO1 DITCH (1893-06-01).
Decreed rights (5)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15797.0 | 1893-04-01 | 1906-09-14 | 0.2 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 96 |
| 27034.26797 | 1923-05-15 | 1924-05-15 | 6.2 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 263 |
| 30667.15797 | 1893-04-01 | 1941-04-29 | 0.6 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 352 |
| 30667.22049 | 1910-05-15 | 1941-04-29 | 4.5 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 416 |
| 30667.25856 | 1920-10-16 | 1941-04-29 | 17.8 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 449 |
Legal record & documents
5 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
CA2021, CA1720, CA1325.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA2021 | 3 | 1941-04-29 | S |
CA1720 | 1 | 1924-05-15 | 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 2,358 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 2,617 AF — 111% of that, and 11th 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 | 3,726 | 13th lowest of 15 · 158% of median | 146 | 28.1 |
| 2012 | 5,220 | 15th lowest of 15 · 221% of median | 177 | 25.7 |
| 2013 | 3,878 | 14th lowest of 15 · 164% of median | 171 | 24.8 |
| 2014 | 2,242 | 6th lowest of 15 · 95% of median | 94 | 20.8 |
| 2015 | 2,231 | 5th lowest of 15 · 95% of median | 109 | 23.0 |
| 2016 | 2,495 | 9th lowest of 15 · 106% of median | 115 | 21.9 |
| 2017 | 1,542 | 1st lowest of 15 · 65% of median | 118 | 16.4 |
| 2018 | 2,800 | 12th lowest of 15 · 119% of median | 206 | 19.2 |
| 2019 | 2,005 | 4th lowest of 15 · 85% of median | 119 | 18.5 |
| 2020 | 1,741 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 74% of median | 71 | 16.1 |
| 2021 | 2,305 | 7th lowest of 15 · 98% of median | 108 | 23.3 |
| 2022 | 2,568 | 10th lowest of 15 · 109% of median | 113 | 17.0 |
| 2023 | 2,358 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 167 | 16.5 |
| 2024 | 1,577 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 67% of median | 124 | 13.6 |
| 2025 | 2,617 | 11th lowest of 15 · 111% of median | 137 | 22.8 |
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 | 5 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 6732 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.