Hydrohistorian
← My Water · Print / save as PDF
BUFFALO CANAL (DEADMAN)
Structure dossier · WDID 6700565 · 1 · DEADMAN DITCH · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:44 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 1895-10-01 — 113th most senior of the 2116 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: BUFFALO CANAL (BUFFALO) (1895-10-01). Immediately behind: GODLEY DITCH & RESERVOIR (1896-01-22).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21857.1671 | 1895-10-01 | 1918-10-14 | 135.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 1918-6 |
Legal record & documents
1 decreed actions on record across
1 court case:
10/14/1918.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
10/14/1918 | 1 | 1918-10-14 | 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 12 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 2,522 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 1,765 AF — 70% of that, and 3rd lowest of the 12 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 | 3,281 | 8th lowest of 12 · 130% of median | 220 | 13.2 |
| 2015 | 1,454 | 1st lowest of 12 · 58% of median | 109 | 39.3 |
| 2016 | 4,721 | 9th lowest of 12 · 187% of median | 232 | 42.7 |
| 2017 | 5,848 | 11th lowest of 12 · 232% of median | 202 | 44.1 |
| 2018 | 6,049 | 12th lowest of 12 · 240% of median | 306 | 27.9 |
| 2019 | 5,663 | 10th lowest of 12 · 224% of median | 365 | 21.8 |
| 2020 | 2,663 | 7th lowest of 12 · 106% of median | 366 | 10.5 |
| 2021 | 2,232 | 4th lowest of 12 · 88% of median | 365 | 8.5 |
| 2022 | 1,621 | 2nd lowest of 12 · 64% of median | 365 | 9.5 |
| 2023 | 2,306 | 5th lowest of 12 · 91% of median | 365 | 13.7 |
| 2024 | 2,381 | 6th lowest of 12 · 94% of median | 366 | 9.2 |
| 2025 | 1,765 | 3rd lowest of 12 · 70% of median | 304 | 9.2 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use shows no clear trend over its last 12 recorded years — which is itself worth knowing.
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
| 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 | 3565 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | continuous | 100% of the irrigation seasons in 2010-2025 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.