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GEORGE S MCDONALD DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 7800555 · 1 · PIEDRA RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 22:32 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (f6d7fdc) — 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 1902-04-01 — 108th most senior of the 366 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: F S MOCKLER IRR DITCH (1901-10-01). Immediately behind: PATTERSON IRRIGATION D (1902-06-01).
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28645.19083 | 1902-04-01 | 1962-04-19 | 4.0 | 0.0 | C | IRR | #244 |
| 35985.0 | 1948-07-10 | 1962-04-19 | 2.0 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOM | #337 |
Legal record & documents
3 decreed actions on record across
2 court cases:
W0181, CA0308.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
W0181 | 1 | 1962-04-19 | S |
CA0308 | 2 | 1962-04-19 | 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 539 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 459 AF — 85% of that, and 7th 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 | 209 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 39% of median | 104 | 2.2 |
| 2012 | 577 | 9th lowest of 15 · 107% of median | 159 | 3.0 |
| 2013 | 290 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 54% of median | 106 | 2.5 |
| 2014 | 581 | 10th lowest of 15 · 108% of median | 158 | 3.0 |
| 2015 | 299 | 4th lowest of 15 · 56% of median | 74 | 4.5 |
| 2016 | 539 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 160 | 3.5 |
| 2017 | 424 | 5th lowest of 15 · 79% of median | 122 | 2.5 |
| 2018 | 890 | 14th lowest of 15 · 165% of median | 177 | 8.5 |
| 2019 | 1,028 | 15th lowest of 15 · 191% of median | 176 | 5.0 |
| 2020 | 841 | 13th lowest of 15 · 156% of median | 202 | 4.0 |
| 2021 | 454 | 6th lowest of 15 · 84% of median | 74 | 3.5 |
| 2022 | 632 | 11th lowest of 15 · 117% of median | 110 | 3.5 |
| 2023 | 776 | 12th lowest of 15 · 144% of median | 121 | 3.5 |
| 2024 | 42 | 1st lowest of 15 · 8% of median | 33 | 0.7 |
| 2025 | 459 | 7th lowest of 15 · 85% of median | 111 | 2.5 |
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 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 | 2 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 5109 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | sparse | 39% of the irrigation seasons in 1964-2025 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.