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STEELE DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 6200763 · 1 · LAKE FORK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 04:35 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 1906-05-11 — 202nd most senior of the 1980 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: NO NAME DITCH (1906-05-11). Immediately behind: VALKER DITCH NO 2 (1906-05-11).
Decreed rights (4)
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23138.20584 | 1906-05-11 | 1925-07-11 | 2.5 | 0.0 | C | STOIRR | 138 |
| 27585.13759 | 1887-09-02 | 1941-04-21 | 3.0 | 0.0 | C | STOIRR | 202 |
| 53325.44498 | 1971-10-31 | 1996-12-31 | 5.5 | 0.0 | C | FIS | |
| 54056.53142 | 1995-07-01 | 1998-12-31 | 0.1 | 0.0 | C | FIRSTK |
Legal record & documents
10 decreed actions on record across
5 court cases:
98CW0158, 96CW0303, CA4742, 84CW0158, CA3516.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
98CW0158 | 1 | 1998-12-31 | S |
96CW0303 | 3 | 1996-12-31 | S |
CA4742 | 1 | 1941-04-21 | S |
84CW0158 | 4 | 1941-04-21 | S |
CA3516 | 1 | 1925-07-11 | 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 257 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 154 AF — 60% of that, and 3rd 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 278 | 10th lowest of 15 · 108% of median | 161 | 1.0 |
| 2011 | 485 | 11th lowest of 15 · 189% of median | 168 | 2.1 |
| 2012 | 561 | 14th lowest of 15 · 218% of median | 185 | 2.1 |
| 2013 | 684 | 15th lowest of 15 · 266% of median | 174 | 2.1 |
| 2014 | 524 | 12th lowest of 15 · 204% of median | 152 | 5.2 |
| 2015 | 527 | 13th lowest of 15 · 205% of median | 158 | 2.2 |
| 2017 | 169 | 5th lowest of 15 · 66% of median | 106 | 1.0 |
| 2018 | 249 | 7th lowest of 15 · 97% of median | 155 | 1.1 |
| 2019 | 96 | 1st lowest of 15 · 37% of median | 90 | 0.9 |
| 2020 | 158 | 4th lowest of 15 · 62% of median | 79 | 1.0 |
| 2021 | 259 | 9th lowest of 15 · 101% of median | 134 | 1.0 |
| 2022 | 227 | 6th lowest of 15 · 88% of median | 132 | 0.9 |
| 2023 | 143 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 56% of median | 132 | 0.6 |
| 2024 | 257 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 184 | 1.0 |
| 2025 | 154 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 60% of median | 80 | 1.4 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is falling over its last 15 recorded years (-24 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.023).
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 | 4 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 4296 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 70% of the irrigation seasons in 1997-2025 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.