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WILLOW CREEK DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 6000805 · 1 · HAY CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 00:07 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 1888-06-28 — 82nd 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: EAGLE DITCH (1888-06-05). Immediately behind: WILLOW CREEK DITCH NO 2 (1888-06-28).
Decreed rights (1)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14059.0 | 1888-06-28 | 1911-06-03 | 1.4 | 0.0 | C | STOIRR | 18 |
Legal record & documents
5 decreed actions on record across
4 court cases:
CA4641, 11CW0151, CA1627, 23CW0041.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA4641 | 1 | 1939-11-01 | S |
11CW0151 | 1 | 1939-11-01 | S |
CA1627 | 1 | 1911-06-03 | O |
23CW0041 | 2 | 1911-06-03 | 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 14 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 68 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 159 AF — 234% of that, and 11th lowest of the 14 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | 635 | 14th lowest of 14 · 934% of median | 151 | 5.0 |
| 1975 | 508 | 13th lowest of 14 · 747% of median | 115 | 4.0 |
| 1976 | 185 | 12th lowest of 14 · 272% of median | 146 | 1.0 |
| 1978 | 72 | 8th lowest of 14 · 106% of median | 128 | 0.5 |
| 1979 | 105 | 10th lowest of 14 · 154% of median | 115 | 1.0 |
| 1980 | 64 | 7th lowest of 14 · 94% of median | 102 | 0.5 |
| 1981 | 78 | 9th lowest of 14 · 115% of median | 119 | 0.5 |
| 1982 | 29 | 5th lowest of 14 · 43% of median | 66 | 0.2 |
| 1983 | 44 | 6th lowest of 14 · 65% of median | 61 | 0.5 |
| 1984 | 12 | 4th lowest of 14 · 18% of median | 27 | 0.2 |
| 1985 | 0 | 1st lowest of 14 · 0% of median | 5 | 0.0 |
| 1986 | 0 | 1st lowest of 14 · 0% of median | 5 | 0.0 |
| 1987 | 0 | 1st lowest of 14 · 0% of median | 4 | 0.0 |
| 2024 | 159 | 11th lowest of 14 · 234% of median | 161 | 0.8 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 14 recorded years (-15 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.001).
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 | 1 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 1205 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 11% 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.