<br />002092
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<br />Kansas State Board of Agriculture
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<br />debris and further restrict the channel. These conditions prevail
<br />rather generally on streams in the basin and are factors in the
<br />magnitude and frequency of occurrence of floods.
<br />It is important to recognize and note the various phy"ical charac-
<br />teristics of the basin, "ince they are a principal factor, in combination
<br />with different hydrologic conditions, in creating the pressing prob-
<br />lems of water use and control which now confront the area.
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<br />THE PROBLEM
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<br />The water problems of the Neosho basin are brought about by the
<br />extreme variations in the available water supply. On an average
<br />there flows from the Neosho river basin each year about one and
<br />one-half million acre-feet of water. While this volume is almost
<br />one hundred times the combined maximum demand of all the mu-
<br />nicipalities now using the river as a source of supply, there are times
<br />when these same municipalities suffer severely from lack of avail-
<br />able water.
<br />A continuous record of the daily discharge of the Neosho river
<br />near Parsons has been kept since October 18, 1921. These data,
<br />for the years 1922 to 1941, inclusive, have been plotted in a hydro-
<br />~raph shown in Figure 2. The vertical scale of the hydrograph is
<br />composed of three intervals in which all values between 0 and 100
<br />are plotted to one scale in the lower interval, values between 100
<br />and 1,000 are plotted to another scale in the middle interval, and
<br />,'alues between 1,000 and 50,000 are plotted to a third scale in the
<br />upper interval.
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<br />Fluctuations in River Flow
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<br />The range in average daily discharge for the period varies from
<br />zero, which occurred for considerable periods of time in 1934, 1936
<br />and 1939, to a maximum of 47,400 cubic feet per second on Novem-
<br />ber 24, 1928. The periods of time when the discharge is less than 100
<br />"econd feet are shown in red and those when the discharge exceeds
<br />15,000 second feet are shown in blue. It is as a result of such
<br />periods that the principal problems of control and use of water begin
<br />to arise.
<br />In the two decades represented on the hydro graph there is not a
<br />single year in which some of these conditions did not occur. In
<br />1924 and 1925 conditions along the river remained quite satisfactory.
<br />The years 1922 and 1923 and the period from 1926 to 1929, inclu-
<br />"ive, are characterized by floods. With the exception of 1935, 1938
<br />and 1941, which are n]so years in which large floods occurred, the
<br />remainder of the time included long periods of extremely low flow.
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