SEARCH: A GAGED WATERSHED INVENTORY1

ABSTRACT: A method, adapted to an APL interactive terminal, is described which allows the operator to thoroughly search a large set of gaged watersheds in order to find sources of comparable hydrologic data for detailed analysis. Bases of the search - and inventory - include drainage basin size and elevation, and geographical and temporal parameters, and should enhance opportunities for more reliable use of existing data.     

USING COMPUTED STREAM FLOW IN WATERSHED ANALYSIS1

Modifications in the computed climatic water budget have made it possible to achieve good agreement between computed and measured stream flow on both a monthly and annual basis in basins without appreciable winter snow cover. Comparisons of computed and measured stream flow in 28 basins on the Delmarva peninsula show that for some basins the agreement is excellent (regression line essentially equals unity), for other basins the regression line has a slope of one but it is displaced above or below the y=x line, while for other basins, the slope of the regression line differs appreciably from unity. Study of the basins where agreement between computed and measured values is only fair to poor reveals that the patterns of disagreement can be used to provide information on the water holding capacity in the root zone of the soil, on the quantity of deep aquifer recharge within the basin, or on the effect of human modifications within the basin. The technique should also reveal the quantity of interbasin transfers or other consumptive uses within the basin. The water budget, thus, becomes a useful tool to study hydrologic characteristics or their changes over time within a basin.     

PREDICTING INSTANTANEOUS PEAK DEMAND IN RURAL DOMESTIC WATER SUPPLY SYSTEMS1

ABSTRACT: Many rural areas of the United States still have no public domestic water systems. Typical land use patterns in these areas may require 1/2 mile or more of pipe per farm connection. Public systems serving these areas are economically feasible only if realistic short-term peak demand standards are available for their design. The lack of reliable data upon which to establish such criteria has resulted in a large variation in criteria among state and federal agencies involved in financing and in approving construction of these systems. During the summer of 1975 three distribution laterals of a rural system in Utah were master metered and instantaneous peak flows were recorded for 4 months. The metered lines served 4, 12, and 22 farm houses each. The frequency distribution of peak flows has been analyzed and compared with that developed during similar research in Mississippi and with the existing design standards of the Farmers Home Administration and the State of Utah.     

RHODAMINE WT DYE LOSSES IN A MOUNTAIN STREAM ENVIRONMENT1

ABSTRACT: A significant fraction of rhodamine WT dye was lost during a short term multitracer injection experiment in a mountain stream environment. The conservative anion chloride and the sorbing cation lithium were concurrently injected. In-stream rhodamine WT concentrations were as low as 45 percent of that expected, based on chloride data. Concentration data were available from shallow‘wells’dug near the stream course and from a seep of suspected return flow. Both rhodamine WT dye and lithium were nonconservative with respect to the conservative chloride, with rhodamine WT dye closely following the behavior of the sorbing lithium. Nonsorption and sorption mechanisms for rhodamine WT loss in a mountain stream were evaluated in laboratory experiments. Experiments evaluating nonsorption losses indicated minimal losses by such mechanisms. Laboratory experiments using sand and gravel size streambed sediments show an appreciable capacity for rhodamine WT sorption. The detection of tracers in the shallow wells and seep indicates interaction between the stream and the flow in the surrounding subsurface, intergravel water, system. The injected tracers had ample opportunity for intimate contact with materials shown in the laboratory experiments to be potentially sorptive. It is suggested that in the study stream system, interaction with streambed gravel was a significant mechanism for the attenuation of rhodamine WT dye (relative to chloride).     

MONTANA'S EXPERIENCE IN RESERVING YELLOWSTONE RIVER WATER FOR INSTREAM BENEFICIAL USES - LEGAL FRAMEWORK1

ABSTRACT: The Yellowstone River historically has produced an ample supply of high quality water which is widely used for irrigation, municipal and industrial purposes, recreation, and fish and wildlife. Recently, energy companies have attempted to obtain water rights in the Yellowstone basin for energy conversion facilities in coal-rich southeastern Montana. Existing users fear that energy diversions will impair their rights, preclude expansion of present beneficial users, degrade water quality, and adversely effect fish and aquatic life. In response to these concerns, the Montana Legislature enacted several laws to regulate water appropriations in the Yellowstone River basin, including means by which state and federal agencies could apply for reservations of water for future beneficial uses. Thereafter, both the Montana Fish and Game Commission and the State Water Quality Bureau formally requested relatively large instream flows to protect fish and wildlife and to maintain water quality. This paper describes Montana's experience through December of 1977 with the administration of water in the Yellowstone basin under these laws; emphasis is placed on the major requests for instream flows. The final resolution of the reservation applications, and the related ramifications, will be discussed in a future paper.     

MODIFIED WATER QUANTITY RECEIVING MODEL FOR FLORIDA CONSERVATION AREAS1

ABSTRACT: The Conservation Areas in South Florida have been considered as one of the major water storage areas to provide a water supply for the Everglades National Park and Lower East Coast (LEC). Due to the increasing water demands of the area, additional backpumping of the surplus runoff from the LEC area into the Conservation Areas has been considered as one of several alternative plans. The Receiving Water Quantity (EPA, 1971) model has been adapted and modified to be applicable in the Conservation Areas to investigate the possible impact of additional inflow under various backpumping cases. The modification of the model included Manning's roughness coefficient, depth of flow, width of hypothetical channels through marsh areas, rainfall input, seepage rate, etc. The use of the Monte Carlo technique for area computations was found to be easy and time saving both in area and weighting rainfall input to each node. Comparison of results generated by this modified model with the recorded values in Conservation Areas 1 and 2A indicated that the model not only can be a very good evaluation tool to simulate the hydraulic regime of the Conservation Areas system but also a proper tool for investigating the impact of additional inflow resulting from the backpumping related to the water use planning and management.     

SURFACE WATER RESOURCES OF ST. JOHNS RIVER,FLORIDA1

ABSTRACT: The St. Johns River basin is the largest watershed entirely within the State of Florida, and is one of the few northward flowing rivers in the United States. The river basin contains 11,431 square miles, of which 9,430 square miles are drained by the river and its tributaries. The remainder drains into the Atlantic Ocean or the Intracoastal Waterway. Its largest sub-basin is the Oklawaha River basin, which has a drainage area of 2,870 square miles. Ground elevations range from sea level to 200 feet above mean sea level in the main river basin and as high as 300 feet above mean sea level in the Oklawaha River basin. This study was designed to investigate the surface water resources of the St. Johns River and the existing consumptive uses. The analysis revealed that the river is an extremely large and valuable resource which has been under-utilized and could play a much stronger role in serving the needs of the people in the basin.     

NONSTEADY FLOW TO A WELL WITH TIME DEPENDENT DRAWDOWN1

Confined flow toward a single well of finite radius in an extensive aquifer of uniform transmissibility is studied under the assumption of time-dependent drawdown. Three particular cases are considered: (a) linear drawdown (including constant drawdown); (b) exponential drawdown; (c) periodic (sinusoidal) drawdown. The differential equation governing unsteady axial symmetric flow toward a single well in a confined aquifer is solved for the three different situations by the use of the Laplace transform method. The resulting expressions are integrated by adapting a modified Gemant scheme. General computer programs have been developed and operated for several combinations of characteristics. The results are plotted to show the effect of time dependent drawdown on the variation of the well discharge and the piezometric head distribution.     

A HYBRID COMPUTER PROGRAM FOR PREDICTING THE CHEMICAL QUALITY OF IRRIGATION RETURN FLOWS1

ABSTRACT. A hybrid computer program was developed to predict the water and salt outflow from a river basin in which irrigation is the major user of water. The model combines a chemical model which predicts the quality of water percolated through a soil profile with a general hydrologic model. The chemical model considers the reactions that occur in the soil, including the exchange of calcium, magnesium, and sodium cations on the soil complex, and the dissolution and precipitation of gypsum and lime. The chemical composition of the outflow is a function of these chemical processes within the soil, plus the blending of undiverted inflows, evaporation, transpiration, and the mixing of sub surface return flows with groundwater. The six common ions of western waters, namely calcium (Ca⁺⁺), magnesium (Mg⁺⁺), sodium (Na⁺), sulfate (SO₄⁼), chloride (Cl^?), and bicarbonate (HCO₃^?) were considered in the study. Total dissolved solids (TDS) outflow was obtained by adding the individual ions. The overall model operates on a monthly time unit. The model was tested on a portion of the Little Bear River basin in northern Utah. The model successfully simulated measured outflows of water and each of the six ions for a 24-month period. The usefulness of the model was demonstrated by a management study of the prototype system. For example, preliminary results indicated that the available water supply could be used to irrigate additional land without unduly increasing the salt outflow from the basin. With minor adjustments the model can be applied to other hydrologic areas.     

ESTIMATION OF SURFACE WATER LAG TIME FROM THE KINEMATIC WAVE EQUATIONS1

ABSTRACT Numerous concepts of surface water lag time have been developed and applied in the past. In this report, hydraulic solutions of a lag time derived by Overton [1970] are presented for several idealistic surfaces using the kinematic wave equations. These surfaces are: (1) a uniform plane; (2) hillslope as a cascade of planes; (3) V-shaped watershed; (4) V-shaped watershed with hill-slopes; (5) converging surface; (6) concave surface. The lag times are shown to be related to roughness, length and catchment slope, and the input rate. These relations may be used immediately in predicting lag time as the parameter in a unit response function. A lag relation has been developed for a nonuniform catchment in terms of the lag of a uniform plane and a convergence factor. A numerical procedure is shown whereby the convergence factor can be evaluated for any nonuniform catchment from observed input and output data.