WSP00697

• File Number: 8200.750
• Description: San Juan River General
• State: CO
• Basin: San Juan/Dolores
• Water Division: 7
• Date: 3/1/1960
• Author: Clifford H Jex
• Title: Report on Stream Depletion of the San Juan River Basin in Colorado - March 1960
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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orj3229

TABLE I

Year

Colorado River San Juan River
Runoff at Runoff at
Lee Ferry Bluff
(1,000 acre feet) (1,000 acre feet)

San Juan River
Runoff Percentage
of Colorado River Runoff

1942-1956 Average
1953-1956 Average

1,567
942

18.1
12.8
17.3
14.0
9.9
11.0
16.9
17.6
8.2
6.8
14.1
10.6
16.1
13.5
9.9

13.6
12.2

1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956

17,030
11,259
13,219
11,546
8,745
13,513
13,689
14,360
11,053
9,831
17,979
8,805
6,117
7,308
8,750

11,547
7,745

3,078
1,445
2,289
1,620
865
1,488
2,319
2,523
902
668
2,542
935
985
988
862

The Illean annual historic flow of the San Juan River at the Bluff, Utah,
station for the thirty-two-year period, 1914-1945, as reported by the Upper

Colorado River Compact Commission was 2,275,600 acre feet. For the same

period, the flow of the Colorado River at Lee Ferry was 13,788,600 acre

feet. During this thirty-two-year period, the runoff of the San Juan

River at Bluff was 16.5% of the runoff of the Colorado at Lee Ferry. This
(16.5%) compares with 13.6% for the fifteen-year period, 1942-1956, and
12.5% for the recent four-year low flow period of 1953-1956.

Watershed Runoff in Colorado

The runoff of all perennial tributaries of the San Juan River leaving

Colorado and entering New Nexico and Utah are measured by stream gaging

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