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<br />00>>243 <br /> <br />Acknowledgments <br /> <br />The author wishes to thank the many landowners in the study area for <br />permission to access Fountain Creek for measuzing streamflow and determining <br />channel cross-sectional geometry. Access granted by the city of Colorado <br />Springs at their wastewater treatment facility for the same purposes as well <br />as other assistance provided for completion of this study also are <br />acknowledged. In addition, the assistance provided by Robert W. Jesse, <br />Thomas C. Simpson, and Robert L. Ermel, Colorado Division of Water Resources, <br />for discussions relating to transit losses and for providing streamflow- <br />diversion data, is acknowledged. Finally, the efforts of John M. Kuzmiak, <br />U.S. Geological Survey, in development and analysis of theoretical stage- <br />discharge relations for selected points along Fountain Creek are greatly <br />appreciated. <br /> <br />'. <br /> <br />DESCRIPTION OF STUDY AREA <br /> <br />t.' <br /> <br />The 51-mi2 study area consists of an alluvial valley about 0.5 to 2 mi <br />wide and 42 mi long that extends from Colorado Springs to the Arkansas River <br />at Pueblo (fig. 1). The valley is drained by Fountain Creek and is bordered <br />by ridges that rise 50 to 200 ft above the valley floor. Altitude in the <br />valley decreases from about 5,900 ft at Colorado Springs to 4,650 ft at the <br />confluence of Fountain Creek and the Arkansas River. Climate in the area is <br />semiarid, and annual precipitation averages about 15.7 in. .at Colorado Springs <br />and 11.9 in. at Pueblo (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 1978, <br />p. 110, 112). <br /> <br />.... <br /> <br />The Quaternary Fountain Creek alluvium is composed of gravel and sand <br />and lesser quantities of silt and clay and is underlain by the Cretaceous <br />Pierre Sh~le (Jenkins, 1964, p. 15, pl. 2). A geologic cross-section of the <br />Fountain Creek valley is shown in figure 2; because the water table is <br />variable, it is not shown in figure 2. Fountain Creek is hydraulically <br />connected to the alluvium, resulting in 'the interaction between streamflow in <br />the creek and ground-water flow in the alluvial aquifer (Livingston and <br />others, 1976a, p. 64-66). More detailed descriptions of the hydraulic and <br />hydrologic characteristics of the Fountain Creek alluvium are presented in <br />Jenkins (1964), Edelmann and Cain (1985), and Ca.in and Edelmann (1986). <br /> <br />,'". <br /> <br />Daily streamflow in Fountain Creek averaged about 71 ft)/s at <br />streamflow-gaging station 07105500 Fountain Creek at Colorado Springs <br />(upstream from the Colorado Springs Wastewater Treatment Facility), 113 ft3/s <br />at station 07105800 Fountain Creek at Security, and 127 ft)/s at station <br />07106500 Fountain Creek at Pueblo during the. 1977 through 1985 water years. <br />Streamflow, however, is quite variable in Fountain Creek; variation in daily <br />streamflow is illustrated by the. hydrograph of average daily streamflow at <br />station 07105800 for the 1981 water year, a typical runoff year (fig. 3). <br />Variation in annual streamflow for the same station is illustrated in <br />figure 4; the substantial increase in streamflow from 1980 through 1985 <br />primarily was the result of greater than normal precipitation during the <br />period. <br /> <br />5 <br />