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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I The South Platte River at the Denver gage drains an area of about 3,BOO square miles. The mean annual flow at this location during the period of the 1928 through 1979 water years was 221,000 acre-feet (Table 8). These flows include contributions from Plum, Bear, and Cherry Creeks and are also affected by the irrigation of lands totalling an estimated 79,000 acres (U.S. I\.rmy Corps of Engineers, 1977). Plum Creek - This stream drains an area of over 300 square miles (Figure 1). Its discharge at a gaging station near Louviers (located 7.5 miles ,upstream from its mouth) has averaged about 20,000 acre-feet annually, based on 32 years of record from U.S. Geological Survey streamflow data. During the flood in June 1965, this stream discharged an estimated 154,000 cfs. Intermittent floods were a substantial part of the justification for Chatfield Reservoir, a flood-control facility constructed in the late 1960's and operated by the U.S. I\.rmy Corps of Engineers. Cherry Creek - This drainage encompasses about 410 square miles. The stream originates at the South Platte-Arkansas divide and flows generally northwestward through Denver (Figure 1). Because intense thunderstorms in this drainage commonly cause flash floods, the u.s. Army Corps of Engineers constructed Cherry Creek Reservoir in 1950 to provide flood control through part of the Denver metropolitan area. Flows at a gaging station located a short distance downstream from Cherry Creek Dam have averaged about 3,000 acre-feet annually, based on 29 years of u.s. Geological Survey streamflow records. Bear Creek - This drainage consists of an area of 260 square miles. At the gaging station located on Bear Creek about 1 mile upstream from its confluence with the South Platte River, the flow has averaged about 28,000 acre-feet annually, based on 52 years of u.S. Geological Survey streamflow records. Bear Creek Reservoir was completed in 1978 -29-