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immediately preceeding and following reservoir releases to Kansas. The day when the average flow increased dramatically (approximately 36 hours after the John Marlin Reservoir release) was used as the first arrival of the water. To determine the end of the release, a procedure developed by the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey was used. The following publications are referenced: 1. USGS Water Resources Investigations 78-75: Transit Losses and TraveUimes of Reservoir Releases Along the Arkans",s River from Pueblo Reservoir to John Martin Rf'servoir, Southeastern Colorado, by Russell K. Livingston. 1978. 2. Colorado Water Resources Circular No. 20: Transit losses and Travf'1 Times for Reservoir Releases. Upper Arkansas Rh'er Basin, Colorado by Russel K. Livingston, 1973. 3. Colorado Water Hesources Circular No. 27: Resen'oir Release Routing Model for the Upper Arkansas River Basin of Colorado by Luckey and Livingston 1975, 4. USGS Water Resources Investigations 78-122: Traveltime, Unit Conce-nlration, Longitudinal-Dispersion, and Reaeration Characteristics or lipstream Reaches of the Yampa and Litlle Snake Rivers, Colorado and Wyoming by Daniel P. Baner et al, 1979, This procedure is premised on the observation that the downstream hydrograph of a reservoir release increases sharply when the leading edge of the release arrives, until a peak is reached, then the hydrograph decreases gradually until the antecedent streamflow is again reached. This skewed hydrograph indicates a longitudinal dispersion of the reservoir release or f1oodwave, and is caused by natural features in the stream, bank storage, diversions, distance of travel and return flows. The average daily flows or the instantaneous flows can be plotted to observe this fact. The arrival of the end of a release from John Martin Reservoir was computed by adding the antecedent streamflow to 5% of the peak stateline flow. The antecedent streamflow was computed by averaging the flows of the two days preceding the arrival of the release. This sum was taken to be the last day of the arrival of tIle reservoir release, minus transit losses. The release is considered to be voltunetrically complete when 95% of the peClk state line discharge has arrived at the state line. For the release request from April 21 to the 24, the antecedent slreamflow at the stateline was 50 cfs; 5 percent of a 742 cfs peak is Jl cfs The end of the tail is 50 cfs plus 37 cfs, or B7 cfs, which was not reached because of the arrival of the next reservoir release. For the April 28 through May I releases. the antecedent streamOow was assumed to be Bi cfs; 5 percent of a 7!(j cfs peak is 36 cfs. The end of the tail is 36 cfs plus 8i cfs, or 123 cfs. which occurred on May 13. For the June 9 through August 10 release requests, the antecedent flow was 51 cis; 5 percent of the 820 cis peak is 41 cfs, The end of the tail is 92 cfs (51 cfs + 41 cfs), which occurred on August 24. It should be noted that "the travel time of the release increases as the antecedent streamflow diminishes." (Russell K. Livingston, U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Investigation No. 78-75). -10-