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BULL ELK DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 7200559 · 1 · WILLOW CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-28 02:14 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (a1c9146) — 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 1919-06-20 — 445th most senior of the 2166 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: BILLINGS DITCH NO 1 (1919-06-18). Immediately behind: KOCH DITCH (1920-04-15).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30895.25372 | 1919-06-20 | 1941-07-25 | 7.2 | 0.0 | C | IRR | |
| 32811.0 | 1939-11-01 | 1941-07-25 | 3.2 | 0.0 | C | IRR | |
| 34419.32811 | 1939-11-01 | 1959-07-21 | 4.65 | 0.0 | C | IRR | |
| 36676.0 | 1950-06-01 | 1959-07-21 | 4.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR |
Legal record & documents
5 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
CA8303, 86CW0148, CA5812.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA8303 | 2 | 1959-07-21 | S |
86CW0148 | 1 | 1959-07-21 | S |
CA5812 | 2 | 1941-07-25 | 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 574 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2023, came in at 13 AF — 2% of that, and 1st 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 109 | 4th lowest of 15 · 19% of median | 12 | 5.0 |
| 2008 | 2,358 | 14th lowest of 15 · 411% of median | 65 | 19.0 |
| 2009 | 2,736 | 15th lowest of 15 · 477% of median | 81 | 19.5 |
| 2010 | 744 | 10th lowest of 15 · 130% of median | 76 | 5.0 |
| 2012 | 637 | 9th lowest of 15 · 111% of median | 79 | 4.2 |
| 2013 | 574 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 106 | 4.3 |
| 2014 | 798 | 11th lowest of 15 · 139% of median | 62 | 15.0 |
| 2015 | 1,782 | 13th lowest of 15 · 310% of median | 109 | 19.0 |
| 2016 | 104 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 18% of median | 17 | 3.3 |
| 2017 | 101 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 18% of median | 35 | 1.5 |
| 2018 | 353 | 7th lowest of 15 · 62% of median | 70 | 6.0 |
| 2019 | 1,047 | 12th lowest of 15 · 182% of median | 91 | 19.0 |
| 2020 | 207 | 5th lowest of 15 · 36% of median | 45 | 5.0 |
| 2021 | 223 | 6th lowest of 15 · 39% of median | 24 | 8.0 |
| 2023 | 13 | 1st lowest of 15 · 2% of median | 25 | 0.3 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use shows no clear trend over its last 15 recorded years — which is itself worth knowing.
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 | 4 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 2147 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 19% of the irrigation seasons in 1970-2023 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.