WSP09281

• File Number: 8407.500
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications - Missouri River
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 5/1/1983
• Author: MBSA
• Title: Missouri River Basin Hydrology Study - Final Report - Missouri Basin States Association
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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INTRODUCTION

Background and Authority

The Missouri River Basin Commission (MRBC)
submitted a Proposal to Study to the U.S. Water Re-
sources Council on .June 28, 1978, entitled, "Missouri
River Basin Hydrology Study." Federal funds for the
study were received in time for a study start in 1980
under the authority of the Water Resources Planning
Act of 1965 (PL. 89-80, 42 U.S.C. 1962 as amended).
The Plan of Study was adopted by action of the MRBC
on February 5, 1980 and the study was initiated. Sub-
sequently, the MRBC was terminated on September
30, 1981, by Executive Order 12319.

The ten states having formed the Missouri Basin
States Association (MBSA), at its organizational
meeting held September 28,1981, adopted as its own
the Missouri River Basin Hydrology Study, Plan of
Study. By that action a commitment was made by the
ten states in the Missouri River Basin to complete the
Hydrology Study.

Study Budget, Area, Organization

The study was jointly funded by the Federal Gov-
ernment, through the U.S. Water Resources Council,
and t he ten states of the Missouri Basin States As-
sociation. The federal contribution totalled about
$1.62 million. The state contribution was estimated at
about $.58 million of in-kind services.

The Missouri River drains an area of 513,300'
square miles in the United States and about 9,700
square miles in Canada. This area includes all of Ne.
braska, the majority of Montana, North Dakota,
South Dakota and Wyoming, about half of Kansas and
Missouri, and small parts of Colorado, Iowa and Min-
nesota.

The western boundary of the basin is made up of
the Rocky Mountain Continental Divide. On the
north, the basin boundary roughly follows the Cana-
dian border. The east boundary is the Upper Missis-
sippi River Basi n and the south boundary the
Arkansas. White-Red Basin. Beginning in Montana,
the Missouri Rive.r flows generally in a southeastern
direction a total of 2,315 miles to its confluence with
the Mississippi River near St. Louis, Missouri. For
this report the Missouri River Basin was divided into
eight subbasins: the Upper Missouri, Yellowstone,

'b,rh\rl~- ';\:'40 -4l.lllr~ \":\.~('... '.n l~\" (;~II: lhvic.f \R.d [)~-.er\l Bllf.in or u\l:.u nonrun.
lrll,"l'n~ rlrllln~ll.f "r~lI_

Western Dakota tributaries, Eastern Dakota tribu-
taries, Platte-N.iobrara, Middle Missouri, Kansas and
Lower Missouri. Figure 1 (page xl.

In an area this large, the physiographic, climatic and
other characteristics are bound to differ. The Rocky
Mountain system of the west gives way to the glaciated
and unglaciated Missouri Plateau in the north and
central sections of the basin and to the high plains in
the southwest. In the east, the central lowlands, the
south central loess hills, and the central rolling plains
of Kansas make up the rest of the Interior Plains. Two
unique areas within the interior plains are the Black
Hills of South Dakota and the Sandhills of Nebraska.
The extreme southeastern tip of the basin consists of
the Interior Highlands and Ozark Plateau. The cli-
mate varies widely across the basin, average annual
total precipitation ranges from below 12 inches in the
west to over 40 inches in the extreme southeastern
part of the basin. Additional characteristics for the
basin can be found in the individual subbasin sections
of this report.

The study was conducted under the MBSA (pre-
viously under MRBC) with responsibility for the study
delegated to the Study Director. The Study Director
was assisted in the day-to-day conduct of the study
by a team of MBSA staff coordinators who were as-
signed to work with each of five work groups. The work
groups were chaired by MBSA or federal agency per.
sonnel and were composed of state and federal agency
technical representatives. A management group with
three federal and four state representatives assisted
the Study Director in developing policy and operating
guidelines. (Figure 5 illustrates the organization.)

Under the .Plan of Study each work group was as-
si~ned specific tasks associated with the study effort.
Following completion of these activities each group
prepared a technical paper which describes in detail
their assigned activities.

General Study Methodology

The major objectives of the study were: (1) to de-
velop an accurate and accepted base of information
describing water availahility and uses in the ten state
Missouri River Basin; and (2) to develop a water ac.
counting system for estimating the effects of using
additional quantities of water in the future.

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