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SUN CREEK DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5900686 · 1 · STEUBEN 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 1878-06-01 — 18th 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: PETER PURRIER EAST DITCH (1878-06-01). Immediately behind: PIONEER DITCH (1878-06-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10379.0 | 1878-06-01 | 1906-09-14 | 3.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 10 |
| 17652.0 | 1898-04-30 | 1906-09-14 | 2.4698 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 120 |
| 30667.10379 | 1878-06-01 | 1941-04-29 | 9.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 282 |
| 30667.17652 | 1898-04-30 | 1941-04-29 | 7.4843 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOM | 368 |
| 30667.22049 | 1910-05-15 | 1941-04-29 | 7.925 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 368 |
Legal record & documents
18 decreed actions on record across
6 court cases:
81CW0208, CA6113, CA2021, 81CW0209, CA1325, 18CW0051.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
81CW0208 | 9 | 1981-12-31 | O, S |
CA6113 | 2 | 1941-04-29 | O, S |
CA2021 | 2 | 1941-04-29 | S |
81CW0209 | 2 | 1941-04-29 | O, S |
CA1325 | 1 | 1906-09-14 | O |
18CW0051 | 2 | 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 516 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 536 AF — 104% of that, and 9th 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 | 622 | 12th lowest of 15 · 120% of median | 125 | 3.6 |
| 2012 | 369 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 72% of median | 81 | 3.6 |
| 2013 | 284 | 1st lowest of 15 · 55% of median | 75 | 3.1 |
| 2014 | 507 | 6th lowest of 15 · 98% of median | 82 | 3.8 |
| 2015 | 310 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 60% of median | 57 | 3.2 |
| 2016 | 484 | 5th lowest of 15 · 94% of median | 95 | 3.7 |
| 2017 | 508 | 7th lowest of 15 · 98% of median | 90 | 3.8 |
| 2018 | 383 | 4th lowest of 15 · 74% of median | 68 | 3.7 |
| 2019 | 575 | 11th lowest of 15 · 111% of median | 80 | 5.1 |
| 2020 | 647 | 13th lowest of 15 · 125% of median | 126 | 4.0 |
| 2021 | 516 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 92 | 4.2 |
| 2022 | 568 | 10th lowest of 15 · 110% of median | 95 | 3.6 |
| 2023 | 754 | 15th lowest of 15 · 146% of median | 157 | 3.8 |
| 2024 | 693 | 14th lowest of 15 · 134% of median | 156 | 3.8 |
| 2025 | 536 | 9th lowest of 15 · 104% of median | 100 | 3.6 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is rising over its last 15 recorded years (+22 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.018).
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 | 5 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 2561 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 26% of the irrigation seasons in 1980-2025 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.