FLOOD08209 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

history of water rights transfers among these three ditches, the Peters- burg Oitch, the Platte Canyon Ditch, the Denver Intake and the Aurora Intake is very complex; and an independent tabulation of the amounts of these water rights remaining in each ditch would be beyond the needs and scope of this report. 2. Brown Ditch The headgate for the Brown Ditch was located approximately three miles downstream from Chatfield Oam on the left bank of the South Platte River, a half mile south of Bowles Avenue adjacent to Columbine Valley Country Cl ub. The di tch headgate was not repl aced after it washed out in 1973, and the ditch is currently not in use. The amount of the irrigation water right remaining in the ditch is as follows: Ditch Br own 1981 Bas i n Rank 85 Appropri ation Date 11/30/1862 Adjudication Date 12/10/1883 Amount (efs) 14.5 Of this amount 13.5 cfs is currently owned by the Tri-City Trust, con- sisting of Denver, Englewood and Littleton, and will probably be trans- ferred upstream to alternate points of diversion at or above Chatfield Reservoir. The remaining 1 cfs may be owned by Columbine Valley Country Club. Assuming that the transfer to the upstream points of diversion occurs, this water right will not contribute significantly to maintain- ing base flows in the South Platte between Chatfield and the Denver Metro Sewage Treatment Plant in the future. 3. Rough and Ready Ditch The point of diversion for the Rough and Ready Ditch was on the right bank of the South Platte about a quarter mile downstream from the Brown Ditch headgate, until the mill which it supplied burned down during the 1950's. The ditch has not been in use since at least that time. The commercial use of water at the mill was non-consumptive and the return V-5 flow reached the river within a half mile of the diversion. The water rights decreed to the ditch are as follows: Ditch Ro ug hand Re ady 1981 Basin Rank 25 214 Adjudication Date Amount Appropriation (cfs) Date 37.00 12/31/1860 31.27 12/31/1867 -- 68.27 cubic feet per second 12/10/1883 12/10/1883 If the ditch were in use, given the seniority of its water rights, it would contribute significantly to the maintenance of base flows in the South Platte River through the metropolitan Denver area, at least during periodS when the full return flow would not be re-diverted a short distance downstream by the Petersburg Ditch. 4. Pet~rsburg Ditch (Englewood Pipeline) The point of diversion is on the right bank of the South Platte approxi- mately six miles downstream from Chatfield Dam and a few hundred feet downstream from the confl uence with Big Dry Creek. The water rights decreed to the Petersburg Ditch are listed below: 1981 Basin Amo unt Appropri ati on Adj ud icat ion Ditch Rank ~~ Date Date Petersburg 50 8.40 08/30/1861 12/10/1883 (Engl ewood P/L) 54 21.60 11/30/1861 12/10/1883 110 5.40 12/30/1863 12/10/1883 110 1. 00 12/30/1863 12/10/1883 160 5.29 12/30/1865 12/10/1883 363 27.00 12/30/1873 12/10/1883 68.69 cubic feet per second These water rights were purchased by Englewood in the 1940's and 1950's. During the winter the minimum flows in the South Platte are approxi- mately 10 cfs immediately upstream from the Petersburg Ditch due to