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REPORT ON ACTIVITIES OF THE U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY J. V. B. W~lls Chief, Surface Wat~r Branch Water Resources Division, i Washington. D. C. The Geological Survey as a research and investigational agency, has as a major function, collection and a~alysis of basic water resources data. To narrow the field a bit, we will present at this meeting only the stream-gaging phase of surface-water inyestigations. As an indication of our growth in collection of stream flo"';' information, it will be interesting to you to know that since the ~nception of the program in this Basin in lBB9, we have increased to near~y 500 gaging stations in operation. Not enough, true, but a far ciry from the early days. Before entering upon a discus sion of stream-gaging, it is worthy of mention that the Colorado River Basin portion of the Surface Water Branch compilation project, whicl). will include a summarization of all records available up to September 130, 1950, is now in the hands of the printers am should be available f~r distribution this month. This report is entitled "Water Supply Paper 1~13. " The basis of all sound analysis ot our surface water resources are gaging station records. Unfortunately there is always a much greater need for the records than there are funds to finance them. So we find it necessary to be forever on the lookout fQr ways and means of stretching available funds to the maximum so that ~s much data as possible will be available. However, you may rest assu'red that there will be no ill- considered or hasty actions that can jeopardize our basic method of operating our stream-gaging networks. ; We are starting a review of the gaging program in the Colorado River Basin along the following lines. -4\11 gaging stations will be arbitrarily classified as being in one or'more of three broad general classifications: base network, secondaty network, and project stations. In brief, the base network stations are \he anchors for the entire general hydrological pattern. They should be overating indefinitely and serve as correlation basis for the secondary atations. The secondary stations logically could be operated for a period! of time such that an adequate correlation could be established with one or more of the base stations and then operations moved to another lqcation where such data would be needed. Project stations are those nee~ed for CLperational purposes, for legal and administrative purposes, 1l-nd for research projects. They mayor may not need tobe operated ovlir long periods of time. depending upon the particular purpose for which t~e records are required and changing requirements. First of all, we must be sure that we have an adequate network of base stations on which to anchor. After the determination of these, the - 32 -;