Boulder and Whiterock Ditch

The information below was provided in 2010 by a local real estate appraiser.

Boulder and Whiterock Ditch is a water-controlled ditch. The on-going water flow is subject to

  1. water measurements at the Orodell gauging station ( http://www.dwr.state.co.us/SurfaceWater/data/detail_graph.aspx?ID=BOCOROCO ) in Boulder Creek (just below the tunnel in Boulder Canyon);
  2. the ditch's standing in the priority system (first in time is first in right);
  3. call or demand for water from the ditch.

The ditch has 35th priority on Boulder Creek and 366th priority in the South Platte River Basin. That means there are 34 ditches off Boulder Creek that have a claim to water before B&WRD. It has a relatively late priority for 190.58 sec.ft. stemming from 1873. Its water season is roughly May 1 through mid-August, depending on the Creek flows measured at the Orodell station and call for water.

The #1 ditch on Boulder Creek and in the South Platte is the Lower Boulder. It's 1859 priority is for the first 25 sec. feet out of the creek. It's 32nd priority in 1870 is for another 72 sec.ft. All together it has a claim to 132 sec.ft. Its season is roughly May through mid-October.

Ditches can start calling for water on April 1 each year but because of existing water content in soils, it's often May before a farmer needs to start irrigating. In wet years there's lots of water headed for Nebraska. In drought years farmers call for water and there might not be any. There's no guarantee that there will be 190.58 sec.ft. available; maybe it's half or a fourth, or ??. But ditch #36 doesn't get any until #35 is satisfied. That's the Boulder & Left Hand Ditch which parallels the B&WRD and has a claim to the next 82.8 sec.ft.

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Last update: February 17, 2011.