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WARD DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 6800771 · 1 · UNCOMPAHGRE RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 00:21 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 1897-05-15 — 152nd most senior of the 1293 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: MONTGOMERY DITCH (1897-08-06). Immediately behind: BAILLIE PUMP (1897-05-15).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20130.17302 | 1897-05-15 | 1905-06-16 | 0.3016 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOM | 144A |
| 29554.17302 | 1897-05-15 | 1942-05-11 | 1.875 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 64 |
Legal record & documents
5 decreed actions on record across
4 court cases:
CA1959, 17CW0023, W0046, CA1288.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA1959 | 1 | 1942-05-11 | S |
17CW0023 | 2 | 1942-05-11 | S |
W0046 | 1 | 1905-06-16 | S |
CA1288 | 1 | 1905-06-16 | 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 177 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 297 AF — 168% of that, and 14th 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 165 | 7th lowest of 15 · 93% of median | 209 | 1.1 |
| 2012 | 35 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 20% of median | 102 | 0.5 |
| 2013 | 66 | 6th lowest of 15 · 37% of median | 129 | 0.7 |
| 2014 | 177 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 157 | 0.9 |
| 2015 | 203 | 9th lowest of 15 · 115% of median | 141 | 1.9 |
| 2016 | 221 | 11th lowest of 15 · 125% of median | 85 | 2.6 |
| 2017 | 47 | 4th lowest of 15 · 27% of median | 93 | 0.7 |
| 2018 | 3 | 1st lowest of 15 · 2% of median | 12 | 1.4 |
| 2019 | 15 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 8% of median | 68 | 0.3 |
| 2020 | 65 | 5th lowest of 15 · 37% of median | 88 | 0.9 |
| 2021 | 236 | 12th lowest of 15 · 133% of median | 105 | 2.4 |
| 2022 | 209 | 10th lowest of 15 · 118% of median | 123 | 2.3 |
| 2023 | 257 | 13th lowest of 15 · 145% of median | 198 | 2.1 |
| 2024 | 467 | 15th lowest of 15 · 264% of median | 227 | 2.1 |
| 2025 | 297 | 14th lowest of 15 · 168% of median | 172 | 1.5 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is rising over its last 15 recorded years (+15 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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 9465 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 59% of the irrigation seasons in 1950-2025 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.