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MCGAUGHEY DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 6100558 · 1 · WEST PARADOX CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 03:37 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 1938-04-20 — 48th most senior of the 166 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: SUNRISE DITCH (1931-03-08). Immediately behind: M F RAY PIPE LINE (1940-06-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32251.0 | 1938-04-20 | 1942-09-25 | 0.33 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 56 |
| 47481.22279 | 1910-12-31 | 1980-12-31 | 6.0 | 0.0 | C | IRRSTK |
Legal record & documents
2 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
80CW0073, CA5397.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
80CW0073 | 1 | 1980-12-31 | S |
CA5397 | 1 | 1942-09-25 | 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 161 AF. Its most recent year on record, 1993, came in at 58 AF — 36% 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 297 | 13th lowest of 15 · 184% of median | 119 | 2.5 |
| 1980 | 273 | 12th lowest of 15 · 170% of median | 110 | 2.0 |
| 1981 | 51 | 4th lowest of 15 · 32% of median | 55 | 0.8 |
| 1982 | 160 | 7th lowest of 15 · 99% of median | 84 | 1.5 |
| 1983 | 197 | 10th lowest of 15 · 122% of median | 88 | 1.5 |
| 1984 | 304 | 14th lowest of 15 · 189% of median | 113 | 3.0 |
| 1985 | 225 | 11th lowest of 15 · 140% of median | 83 | 3.2 |
| 1986 | 335 | 15th lowest of 15 · 208% of median | 92 | 3.0 |
| 1987 | 177 | 9th lowest of 15 · 110% of median | 88 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 94 | 6th lowest of 15 · 58% of median | 68 | 1.4 |
| 1989 | 34 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 21% of median | 38 | 3.0 |
| 1990 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 5 | 0.0 |
| 1991 | 0 | 1st lowest of 15 · 0% of median | 5 | 0.0 |
| 1992 | 161 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 106 | 1.4 |
| 1993 | 58 | 5th lowest of 15 · 36% of median | 60 | 0.5 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-18 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.042).
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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 1559 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 31% of the irrigation seasons in 1969-1993 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.