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BIG CREEK RESERVOIR NO 3
Structure dossier · WDID 7203905 · 3 · BIG CREEK · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:58 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 1893-09-01 — 121st 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: BIG CREEK RESERVOIR NO 1 (1893-08-01). Immediately behind: BIG CREEK RESERVOIR NO 4 (1893-09-24).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18749.1595 | 1893-09-01 | 1905-10-14 | 1581.0 | 0.0 | A | IRR |
Legal record & documents
4 decreed actions on record across
3 court cases:
CA5812, 01CW0337, CA1222.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA5812 | 1 | 1941-07-25 | S |
01CW0337 | 2 | 1941-07-25 | S |
CA1222 | 1 | 1905-10-14 | 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 15 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 630 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2024, came in at 580 AF — 92% of that, and 6th 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.
| 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 | Released (AF) | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 259 | 1st lowest of 15 · 41% of median | 10 | 61 | 2.4 |
| 2011 | 1,711 | 15th lowest of 15 · 272% of median | 1,030 | 365 | 33.4 |
| 2012 | 631 | 9th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 955 | 366 | 17.2 |
| 2013 | 457 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 72% of median | 225 | 305 | 7.2 |
| 2014 | 602 | 7th lowest of 15 · 96% of median | 581 | 149 | 20.7 |
| 2015 | 323 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 51% of median | 406 | 365 | 5.9 |
| 2016 | 519 | 5th lowest of 15 · 82% of median | 357 | 366 | 7.7 |
| 2017 | 630 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 415 | 365 | 19.1 |
| 2018 | 496 | 4th lowest of 15 · 79% of median | 644 | 365 | 18.2 |
| 2019 | 718 | 10th lowest of 15 · 114% of median | 306 | 365 | 27.2 |
| 2020 | 761 | 11th lowest of 15 · 121% of median | 1,457 | 366 | 19.9 |
| 2021 | 1,095 | 14th lowest of 15 · 174% of median | 795 | 365 | 11.4 |
| 2022 | 908 | 12th lowest of 15 · 144% of median | 268 | 365 | 17.9 |
| 2023 | 933 | 13th lowest of 15 · 148% of median | 814 | 365 | 13.8 |
| 2024 | 580 | 6th lowest of 15 · 92% of median | 852 | 304 | 13.5 |
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 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 | 4837 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | continuous | 100% of the irrigation seasons in 2010-2024 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.