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CHURCHILL DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5900718 · 1 · WILLOW CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 23:06 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 1880-05-31 — 34th 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: FRANK ADAMS NO 1 DITCH (1880-05-31). Immediately behind: GUNNISON TOWN DITCH (1880-06-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11109.0 | 1880-05-31 | 1906-09-14 | 0.5 | 0.0 | C | IRRAUG | 19 |
| 45442.0 | 1974-06-01 | 1974-12-31 | 3.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR |
Legal record & documents
4 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
96CW0240, CA1325, 92CW0116.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
96CW0240 | 1 | 1974-12-31 | S |
CA1325 | 1 | 1906-09-14 | O |
92CW0116 | 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 1,234 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 991 AF — 80% of that, and 4th 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 | 1,580 | 13th lowest of 15 · 128% of median | 153 | 8.3 |
| 2012 | 1,289 | 11th lowest of 15 · 104% of median | 174 | 6.1 |
| 2013 | 1,280 | 10th lowest of 15 · 104% of median | 157 | 5.5 |
| 2014 | 1,258 | 9th lowest of 15 · 102% of median | 161 | 8.0 |
| 2015 | 730 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 59% of median | 149 | 4.2 |
| 2016 | 901 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 73% of median | 135 | 6.1 |
| 2017 | 997 | 5th lowest of 15 · 81% of median | 137 | 5.1 |
| 2018 | 1,234 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 173 | 5.4 |
| 2019 | 259 | 1st lowest of 15 · 21% of median | 101 | 2.9 |
| 2020 | 1,061 | 6th lowest of 15 · 86% of median | 130 | 6.0 |
| 2021 | 1,925 | 15th lowest of 15 · 156% of median | 157 | 7.7 |
| 2022 | 1,342 | 12th lowest of 15 · 109% of median | 129 | 6.6 |
| 2023 | 1,208 | 7th lowest of 15 · 98% of median | 151 | 7.5 |
| 2024 | 1,660 | 14th lowest of 15 · 134% of median | 163 | 6.9 |
| 2025 | 991 | 4th lowest of 15 · 80% of median | 128 | 6.9 |
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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 5271 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 67% of the irrigation seasons in 1989-2025 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.