Hydrohistorian
Log in

← My Water  ·  All reservoirs in this district  ·  Print / save as PDF  · 

 ·  every download of this record carries its certificate id

CHEESMAN RES

Structure dossier · WDID 8003550 · RESERVOIR · SOUTH PLATTE RIVER · DWR record

Cheesman Res is a reservoir on South Platte River in Colorado. This page is its public record: the water it has a right to, whether it may take it today, and its history, compiled from the Colorado Division of Water Resources.

Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR structure ↗ Source DWR administrative record · verify at DWR diversion records ↗ Source Our computation, scored against a reference · scored against DWR's call analysis, see /methods

Where this page's figures come from

Generated 2026-10-16 16:00 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260928 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (dd58e60) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.

Who owns it

DWR’s own records name no owner for a ditch, reservoir or well, so this comes from the source shown and can be out of date. Organisations only: a private landowner’s name is never listed.

Where this structure is measured

GageFlowing nowRecordHow we know
CHEESMAN RESERVOIR CHERESCO 0.0 cfs 2002–2026, 7,785 days DWR telemetry mapping

A green link is DWR's own: either its telemetry inventory maps this WDID to that station, or the station is named for this WDID (0700553 → 0700553A). An amber one is ours — the station sits within 250 m and shares a distinctive word with this structure's name, which is a strong hint rather than a DWR statement that this gage meters this structure. Wrong? Tell us.

Flowing now

0.0 cfs as of 2026-10-16 14:15 (1.8 h ago)

Zero is a real reading: the gage is reporting, and it says this structure is not diverting right now.

Provisional 15-minute telemetry from CHERESCO ↗ (CHEESMAN RESERVOIR). Raw, not the approved record — it is never merged into the diversion history below. DWR publishes the official diversion record after the water year closes and is approved, which is why that record ends months back while this reads minutes ago.

In short

CHEESMAN RES holds 5 decreed rights on SOUTH PLATTE RIVER. No active call senior to its rights reaches its district today (17 active calls checked), so it is in priority now. 6 further calls state no district and sit outside this one, so they are counted here rather than assumed either way. That is today's position; the weeks ahead cannot be projected for it: no gage record for this year at this date, so there is nothing to find analogs for. In a median year over its last 15 recorded years it diverts 38,612 acre-feet. That use is rising by about 3230.4 acre-feet a year over 15 years (p=0.037666922228628774). It was a party to 2 court cases that also touched 1 other structures.

Assembled from the figures on this page — every number above is checked against them before it is shown (10 checked). The detail, with its method, is in the cards below.

Download this structure

Everything on this page as data you can work with — and a README that makes it citable: the HydroBase snapshot it was built from, the build commit, what every column means, the method behind each derived figure, and that method's stated limits.

⇩ Full record (.zip) Print / save as PDF

Or one table at a time: rights.csv · annual_use.csv · curtailment_now.csv · court_cases.csv · co_parties.csv · call_climatology.csv

What is in the bundle
  • rights.csv — every decreed right, most senior first, with admin numbers, dates, amounts, uses and case numbers.
  • annual_use.csv — recorded diversion by year, with releases accounted separately.
  • curtailment_now.csv — each right's current priority status and how often it was out across analog years.
  • court_cases.csv — the cases attached to its rights.
  • co_parties.csv — the other structures that were parties to those cases. Not available anywhere else.
  • call_climatology.csv — how often each right has been out of priority by week of season, with confidence intervals and the seasons the record could actually judge.
  • README.txt — provenance, methods, limits, disclaimer, and links back to DWR's own records for verification.

Where it sits

Location as DWR records it (storage). Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.

Dam safety

Dam CHEESMAN (completed 1905)
Hazard class High
Condition at last inspection Satisfactory (2026-04-01)
Storage restriction None on file
Normal storage 79,064 AF
Physical status Active
Emergency action plan Yes

Source: DWR Dam Safety’s jurisdictional-dam inventory (damsafety/damsafetydaminfojd), refreshed weekly. Joined on this structure’s own WDID as DWR records it on the dam. Hazard class describes the consequence of failure, not the likelihood of it. DWR’s dam record.

Current administration

● In priority — no active call senior to this structure's rights affects its district (17 active call(s) checked).

6 further calls state no district and sit outside this one, so they are counted here rather than assumed either way.

Which of its rights are out of priority?

The outlook for the weeks ahead is not computable for this structure: no gage record for this year at this date, so there is nothing to find analogs for. Today’s position is a separate question, and it is answered in Current administration above — that screen reads the district’s active calls and needs no reference gage.

Where it sits in line

Priority 1860-12-28 — 19th most senior of the 21886 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: ELEVEN MILE RES (1860-12-28). Immediately behind: FAIRPLAY, TOWN OF ALT PT (1860-12-31).

On MAINSTEM at river mile 52.7, it is 434th of 890 down the reach. Immediately upstream: LEONARD JOHNSON SPG 4. Immediately downstream: DURY NO 1 STOCK WTR DEV.

Position on the modelled network, not a claim about whose water this is — a stream carries water from many rights at once, and diverted water returns to it.

Decreed rights (7)

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. Alt-pointAn absolute amount decreed at another structure that may be diverted here instead -- an alternate point of diversion or an exchange. DWR calls this the APEX amount; a right showing 0.0 absolute but an alt-point amount is exercised here under another structure's decree. Decreed forWhat the court said this water may be used for -- irrigation, municipal supply, augmentation and so on.Case
4015.00000 1860-12-281883-12-10 0.0 AF 0.0 1790.28 AF Irrigation, Municipal 20CW3200
4015.00000 1860-12-281883-12-10 0.0 cfs 0.0 6.5 cfs Irrigation, Municipal 20CW3200
14423.00000 1889-06-271913-05-22 30691.0 AF 0.0 — Municipal, Fire +2 CA1636
15973.00000 1893-09-241913-05-22 48373.0 AF 0.0 — Storage, Municipal +2 CA1636
29219.00000 1929-12-311953-03-24 79064.0 AF 0.0 — Irrigation, Municipal +6 CA3286
29386.26117 1921-07-041972-05-18 0.0 AF 0.0 79064.0 AF Irrigation, Municipal +5 CA3635, 96CW0145 +1
29386.26117 1921-07-041972-05-18 0.0 cfs 0.0 664.0 cfs Irrigation, Municipal +5 CA3635, 96CW0145 +1

Amounts marked cfs are flow rates; AF are stored volumes (storage rights are decreed in acre-feet). An absolute amount of 0.0 beside an alt-point amount is not a dead right: the water is decreed at another structure, and that row records permission to divert it here instead (an alternate point or exchange). A case listing several numbers reflects the original decree plus later change cases.

How often is it out of priority?

Across the 11 seasons whose call record is complete enough to judge this structure (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026), week by week from April.

most senior right · admin 4015.00000 · never out of priority in these seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
middle right · admin 15973.00000 · peaks at 10 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep
most junior right · admin 29386.26117 · peaks at 10 of 11 seasons
AprMayJunJulAugSep

Snow sets the clock here. In the driest third of snow years (3 seasons), 2 seasons stayed under call throughout and 0 ended free. In the middle third (5 seasons), the call settled in for the season around June 24 (April 29 to July 8 across those years); in 1 of them it never lifted at all. In the wettest third (3 seasons), the call settled in for the season around July 8 (June 10 to July 8 across those years); in 1 of them it never lifted at all.

Snow years ranked by the district’s April 1 snow-water percentile across 1 SNOTEL site; 11 seasons carry both a snow reading and a judgeable call record. How the past played out, not a forecast.

Why only 11 seasons, and what the bars mean

Each bar is one week: how many of those seasons that right was out of priority under a call this site can lawfully attribute to this structure. Green is never, red is every season on record.

The short record is a property of DWR's data, not of the river. A call only counts against a structure when we can establish it applies — by the districts named in its set comments, or by stream mile on the same source. DWR did not begin stating affected districts routinely until about 2015: fewer than one call in ten can be judged before then, against roughly two in three since. A season we cannot judge is not a season without calls, so it is dropped rather than counted as quiet — 12 seasons dropped here.

This is a frequency over past seasons, not a forecast. It says nothing about what the division engineer will do this year.

Recorded use (last 15 years on record)

Years far under the decreed amount? That gap has a name — paper water vs. wet water, explained on this structure.

In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 38,612 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 19,040 AF — 49% of that, and 2nd 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.

YearDiverted (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 recordReleased (AF)Days recordedPeak (cfs)
2011 33,002 6th lowest of 15 · 86% of median 35,976 243 360.0
2012 16,885 1st lowest of 15 · 44% of median 40,665 244 175.0
2013 49,496 10th lowest of 15 · 128% of median 23,012 296 393.0
2014 24,411 4th lowest of 15 · 63% of median 25,588 306 381.6
2015 38,612 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median 42,404 273 402.7
2016 22,201 3rd lowest of 15 · 58% of median 23,535 304 139.0
2017 35,151 7th lowest of 15 · 91% of median 31,189 321 359.8
2018 26,994 5th lowest of 15 · 70% of median 38,967 297 177.0
2019 40,831 9th lowest of 15 · 106% of median 34,910 325 558.0
2020 51,630 12th lowest of 15 · 134% of median 72,926 300 388.0
2021 73,134 14th lowest of 15 · 189% of median 35,385 350 378.0
2022 50,254 11th lowest of 15 · 130% of median 35,793 343 367.0
2023 67,473 13th lowest of 15 · 175% of median 65,729 356 429.0
2024 87,841 15th lowest of 15 · 228% of median 86,323 356 832.2
2025 19,040 2nd lowest of 15 · 49% of median 24,947 223 175.1

How good is our record of it?

Grade A (10/10 points) — the components below are the finding; the letter alone is not.

The rubric, component by component
CheckStateDetail
identity complete name, type, and water source all on file
decreed rights on file 7 right(s), seniority decoded
diversion record current 14053 measured days, newest 336 day(s) before the data's end (DWR publishes ~1 year in arrears)
record continuity continuous 100% of the irrigation seasons in 1972-2025 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.

Hydrohistorian is free, with no ads — one server and a lot of public records. If it earns its keep, you can help keep it running.