Hydrohistorian
← My Water · Print / save as PDF
BENSON DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 6000524 · 1 · ALDER CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 00:09 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 1890-06-01 — 794th most senior of the 2893 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: PROSPECT NO 2 DITCH (1889-07-01). Immediately behind: CARRIERE DITCH (1890-08-25).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30604.14762 | 1890-06-01 | 1939-11-01 | 1.5 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 222 |
| 47847.14731 | 1890-05-01 | 1981-12-31 | 0.5 | 0.0 | C | IRR |
Legal record & documents
2 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
81CW0210, CA4641.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
81CW0210 | 1 | 1981-12-31 | S |
CA4641 | 1 | 1939-11-01 | 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 15 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 52 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 26 AF — 50% of that, and 5th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 184 | 15th lowest of 15 · 354% of median | 173 | 0.9 |
| 2011 | 60 | 10th lowest of 15 · 115% of median | 86 | 0.8 |
| 2012 | 74 | 12th lowest of 15 · 142% of median | 82 | 1.3 |
| 2013 | 113 | 14th lowest of 15 · 217% of median | 184 | 0.5 |
| 2014 | 46 | 6th lowest of 15 · 88% of median | 44 | 0.8 |
| 2015 | 70 | 11th lowest of 15 · 135% of median | 125 | 0.5 |
| 2016 | 58 | 9th lowest of 15 · 112% of median | 85 | 0.5 |
| 2017 | 48 | 7th lowest of 15 · 92% of median | 91 | 0.5 |
| 2018 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 13 | 0.0 |
| 2019 | 87 | 13th lowest of 15 · 167% of median | 62 | 1.0 |
| 2020 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 9 | 0.0 |
| 2021 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 8 | 0.0 |
| 2022 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 2 | 0.0 |
| 2023 | 52 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 47 | 0.8 |
| 2024 | 26 | 5th lowest of 15 · 50% of median | 45 | 0.6 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-7 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.012).
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 | 4798 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 44% of the irrigation seasons in 1974-2024 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.