WSP04354

• File Number: 8102
• Description: Arkansas River Hydrology
• State: CO
• Basin: Arkansas
• Water Division: 2
• Date: 1/1/1997
• Author: USGS
• Title: Description of the Program Changes 1989 97 and a User Manual for a Transit Loss Accounting Program Applied to Fountain Creek Between Colorado Springs and the Arkansas River Colorado
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

DAY OF TRANSMOUNT AIN DAY OF TRANSMOUNTAIN
RETURN-FLOW RELEASE RETURN-FLOW USE OR REUSE
"___u__u______.__"__"u_._________u_________ __n_ _nu ---------.-- ---------------.--- ~ .
Station 07105500
-, ~ Station 07105530 ~ :IS"'tion 001 ",cd in original aCcQunting progrnm)
I
0200 0200
I Station 07105800 I
f- ror I
0400 0400
~ I Station 07106000 ,
I -,
f 100n 1000
r I Station 07106300 ,
I -I
1800 1800
NOTE: Gaging stations listed in table 1; J
locations shown in figure 2.
Station 07106500

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2400

1200

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2400
TIME

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1200

2400

Figure 3. Time periods used in computing provisional daily mean discharges at streamflow-
gaging stations on Fountain Creek for input to the transit-ioss accounting program.

although the input data are needed on a near real-time
basis, the transit-loss computations for a given release
day are not made on a real-time basis, and the compu-
tation day (\he day after the "use m reuse day" in fig.
3) lags the release day by 2 or more days. (At some
times, such as during weekends or during periods of
highly variable discharge in Fountain Creek, the water
comntissioners may not operate the accounting
program each consecutive day; thus, two or more
computations may be made at one time to bring the
computations up to date.)
Daily mean discharges input to the accounting
program are provisional (subject to revision) because
(1) the 24-hour periods that are different from a

midnight (2400 hours) to ntidnight period at some
gaging stations (fig. 3) are never used in computing
published discharge data and (2) the discharges are
computed on a near real-time basis and may be
adjusted later with more up-to-date stage-discharge
shift data. The resulting error in transit-loss calcula-
tion was not considered to be substantial (Kuhn, 1988,
p. 88). The TRF and the native return-flow quantities
that are input to the program are for a normal 24-hour
period to facilitate administration of the TRF use and
reuse program. Diversion data that are input also are
for a normal 24-hour period, primarily because the
quantity of streamflow divened remains fairly
constant from day to day.

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DESCRtPTION OF THE ORIGtNAL TRANSIT-LOSS ACCOUNTING PROGRAM 7