What is a WDID?

The format

DWR's data dictionary describes the WDID simply as the “DWR unique structure identifier.” In practice it has seven digits:

• The first two digits are the water district, zero-padded (01, 12, 38…).
• The last five digits number the structure within that district.

Example: 1200660 is the Hardscrabble Ditch. The 12 is Water District 12 (Arkansas: Salida to Portland), in Water Division 2. The 00660 identifies the ditch within District 12. When people write a WDID with a space or dash — “12 660” — they mean the same thing; BasinMind's Structures search accepts the district and ID that way too.

Water districts and divisions

Colorado's seven water divisions are split into water districts, each usually covering a stream or a stretch of a river. CDSS's reference table lists 78 districts, numbered from 1 to 80. District numbers do not run in order by division — District 23 (Upper South Platte) is in Division 1, while District 20 (Rio Grande) is in Division 3 — so the WDID tells you the district, and the district tells you the division. A few examples from the CDSS table:

What a WDID is attached to

A WDID names a structure, not a water right. One ditch (one WDID) can hold several water rights with different priorities, and records of diversions, calls and ownership all hang off the WDID. That is why water commissioners, engineers and water courts use it: two ditches can share a name, but never a WDID.

Structures include ditch headgates, reservoirs, wells, springs, pipelines, pumps, augmentation stations and measuring points. Wells often also carry a well permit number, which is different from the WDID.

Where you will see WDIDs

• Calls. Each active call names the calling structure and its WDID. In the live box above, the most senior call in Division 2 links to its structure page.
• Diversion records. DWR publishes daily and annual diversion records by WDID.
• Decrees and water court resumes. Applications describe structures by WDID where one exists.
• Maps. BasinMind's Map and DWR's map viewers locate structures by WDID.

Common mix-ups

• Dropping the leading zero. Districts 1 through 9 begin with a zero: 0600580 is in District 06, not District 60. Spreadsheets often strip that zero, so store WDIDs as text.
• Confusing structures that share a name. Check the district digits: two “Highline” ditches in different districts have different first two digits.
• Treating the WDID as the right. A call or decree refers to a particular water right on the structure; the WDID alone does not tell you which right is in priority.
• Mixing up the call and the structure. A call names the structure that is short of water, not the structures being curtailed.

Finding a WDID

If you know the ditch name, search it on the Structures page and check the water source and county to be sure you have the right one. If you know the location, use the Map. If neither works, the water commissioner for the district or the Division Engineer's office can tell you. Once you have the WDID, the structure page shows its decreed rights, and you can compare them with today's calls — see Is my ditch in priority?