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<br />. . <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />8 <br /> <br />Moving upstre~m, comparison of the Henderson and Denver gages with <br />Julesburg shows much the same pattern, except the severity of the drought <br />years of the 50is was more pronounced at Denver and Henderson than expe- <br />rienced at the Kersey station. Looking at the inflow stations from the <br />tributaries between Denver and Kersey, one sees the probable reason for <br />the sl ight modification of the Kersey flow. The 10-year moving averages <br />over the same time period for Clear Creek, the Big Thompson River, and the <br />Cache la Poudre River at their mouths indicate a gradually increasing trend <br />of flow over this study period. . The pattern of the outflow of St. Vraln <br />Creek does not show this increasing tendency but shows a pattern quite <br />similar to those already discussed for'the main stem stations. The increas- <br />ing flow pattern for the Big Thompson River and the Cache.la Poudre River Is <br />undoubtedly due to additional return flows generated by the transmountain <br />water imported by the Colorado-Big Thompson Project. This new water has <br />apparently not been sufficiently large to, influence the 6utflow of the St. <br />Vrain the same as the other two tributaries. <br /> <br />DESCRIPTION OF GRAPHICAL ANALYSIS <br /> <br />The analysis of State Line flow at the Nebraska border was analyzed in a <br />graphical manner as shown on the attached ~i~ure, dated July, 1968. The <br />Figure is a double-mass diagram which has been developed to investigate the <br />flow of the river at Julesburg during the past 56 years in an effort to in- <br />terpret the effect of water importations, well pumping and other natural and <br />man-made events on the state I ine flow. The vertical scale of the diagram <br />represents the accumulated annual runoff, in mi 11 ion acre-feet, of the South <br />Platte River at Julesburg. The horizontal scale is also in mill ion acre-feet <br />and represents the accumulated annual runoff of three mOuntain streams <br />measured at their emergence from the mountains and generally before they are <br />affected by diversions. These three streams represented are St. Vrain Creek <br />at Lyons, Boulder Creek at Orodell, and Clear Creek at Golden. <br /> <br />A double-mass diagram is a method of identifying alterations of flow <br />patterns for a point of interest, in this case the South Platte at Julesburg, <br />by comparison with the flow pattern of index flow gauges, such as the three <br />streams, which are subject to the same general cl imatic variations as the <br />point of interest but are not significantly affected by man-made events such <br />as importation of west slope water and well pumping. Thus if there were no <br />changes in regime of flow over the years, the points when plotted would form <br />a straight I ine. Conversely, a shift in the slope of the line represents a <br />change in flow pattern which can, in many cases, be related to significant <br />events. Analysis of the double-mass diagram, and the table of average annual <br />flows of the South Platte River at Julesburg for various time periods appear- <br />ing thereon, indicates that: <br /> <br />1. Transmountaln diversions, averaging almost 300,000 acre-feet an- <br />nually since 1958 have not caused a significant increase in the flow at <br />Julesburg over the historic average. Reasons for this Include: <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />a. Increase in combined surface water and w~ll pumping diversions <br /> <br />b. Increased use by municipal itles and industry. <br />