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SOUTH PLATTE DITCH

Structure dossier · WDID 6400535 · 1 · SOUTH PLATTE RIVER · DWR record

Where this page's figures come from

Generated 2026-08-29 01:11 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (69085a9) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.

In short

SOUTH PLATTE DITCH holds 9 decreed rights on SOUTH PLATTE RIVER. We cannot judge whether its rights are in priority: no gage record for this year at this date, so there is nothing to find analogs for. In a median year over its last 15 recorded years it diverts 15,443 acre-feet. That use is rising by about 310.7 acre-feet a year over 15 years (p=0.037666922228628774). It was a party to 10 court cases that also touched 14 other structures.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (8 checked). The detail, with its method, is in the cards below.

Download this structure

Everything on this page as data you can work with — and a README that makes it citable: the HydroBase snapshot it was built from, the build commit, what every column means, the method behind each derived figure, and that method's stated limits.

⇩ Full record (.zip) Print / save as PDF

Or one table at a time: rights.csv · annual_use.csv · curtailment_now.csv · court_cases.csv · co_parties.csv · call_climatology.csv

What is in the bundle
  • rights.csv — every decreed right, most senior first, with admin numbers, dates, amounts, uses and case numbers.
  • annual_use.csv — recorded diversion by year, with releases accounted separately.
  • curtailment_now.csv — each right's current priority status and how often it was out across analog years.
  • court_cases.csv — the cases attached to its rights.
  • co_parties.csv — the other structures that were parties to those cases. Not available anywhere else.
  • call_climatology.csv — how often each right has been out of priority by week of season, with confidence intervals and the seasons the record could actually judge.
  • README.txt — provenance, methods, limits, disclaimer, and links back to DWR's own records for verification.

Where it sits

Location as DWR records it (diversion). Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.

Which of its rights are out of priority?

Not computable for this structure: no gage record for this year at this date, so there is nothing to find analogs for.

Where it sits in line

Priority 1872-05-01 — 1st most senior of the 2052 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 behind: FRITZLER WELL P00881 (1872-06-01).

On MAINSTEM at river mile 4.0, it is 4th of 255 down the reach. Immediately upstream: FOILES LF DRAW DIVR. Immediately downstream: SCHACKLEY DITCH.

Position on the modelled network, not a claim about whose water this is — a stream carries water from many rights at once, and diverted water returns to it.

Decreed rights (9)

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. Decreed forWhat the court said this water may be used for -- irrigation, municipal supply, augmentation and so on.Case
8157.00000 1872-05-011894-11-15 22.5 C 0.0 Irrigation, Augmentation +1
9542.00000 1876-02-151903-02-24 7.5 C 0.0 Irrigation, Augmentation +1
12164.00000 1883-04-211903-02-24 20.0 C 0.0 Irrigation, Augmentation +1
14731.00000 1890-05-011903-02-24 37.5 C 0.0 Irrigation, Augmentation +1
16893.00000 1896-04-011902-09-29 50.0 C 0.0 Irrigation, Augmentation +1
45364.00000 1974-03-151974-12-31 26.8 C 0.0 Storage, Recharge
46590.00000 1977-07-231977-12-31 14.283 C 0.0 Storage
55882.53771 1997-03-212003-12-31 55.0 C 65.0 C Augmentation, Recharge
56613.55995 2003-04-232005-12-31 0.0 C 0.0 Irrigation, Municipal +5

How often is it out of priority?

Across the 11 seasons whose call record is complete enough to judge this structure (2004, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026), week by week from April.

most senior right · admin 8157.00000 · never out of priority in these seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
middle right · admin 16893.00000 · peaks at 11 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
most junior right · admin 56613.55995 · peaks at 11 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
Why only 11 seasons, and what the bars mean

Each bar is one week: how many of those seasons that right was out of priority under a call this site can lawfully attribute to this structure. Green is never, red is every season on record.

The short record is a property of DWR's data, not of the river. A call only counts against a structure when we can establish it applies — by the districts named in its set comments, or by stream mile on the same source. DWR did not begin stating affected districts routinely until about 2015: fewer than one call in ten can be judged before then, against roughly two in three since. A season we cannot judge is not a season without calls, so it is dropped rather than counted as quiet — 12 seasons dropped here.

This is a frequency over past seasons, not a forecast. It says nothing about what the division engineer will do this year.

Recorded use (last 15 years on record)

Years far under the decreed amount? That gap has a name — paper water vs. wet water, explained on this structure.

In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 15,443 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 17,975 AF — 116% of that, and 13th lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.

This structure records both diversions and reservoir releases — they are separate water movements and are accounted separately below.

YearDiverted (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 recordReleased (AF)Days recordedPeak (cfs)
2010 15,443 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median — 255 51.4
2011 16,389 9th lowest of 15 · 106% of median — 246 65.8
2012 12,674 2nd lowest of 15 · 82% of median — 237 45.1
2013 12,561 1st lowest of 15 · 81% of median — 272 55.8
2014 14,751 6th lowest of 15 · 96% of median — 239 68.9
2015 14,467 4th lowest of 15 · 94% of median — 275 48.8
2016 12,834 3rd lowest of 15 · 83% of median — 271 42.1
2017 18,007 14th lowest of 15 · 117% of median — 274 61.8
2018 16,429 10th lowest of 15 · 106% of median — 261 57.3
2019 14,596 5th lowest of 15 · 94% of median — 190 56.3
2020 17,503 12th lowest of 15 · 113% of median — 271 54.8
2021 17,361 11th lowest of 15 · 112% of median — 225 66.6
2022 15,211 7th lowest of 15 · 98% of median — 227 54.3
2023 20,167 15th lowest of 15 · 131% of median — 270 76.6
2024 17,975 13th lowest of 15 · 116% of median — 304 62.3

Call-derived yield: senior right divertible 61.2% of a median season / 20.1% dry-year.

How good is our record of it?

Grade A (9/10 points) — the components below are the finding; the letter alone is not.

The rubric, component by component
CheckStateDetail
identity complete name, type, and water source all on file
decreed rights on file 9 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record stale 16410 measured days, but newest is 654 day(s) before the data's end (target 450)
record continuity continuous 100% of the irrigation seasons in 1950-2024 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.