WSP05120

• File Number: 8200.760
• Description: Yampa River General
• State: CO
• Basin: Yampa/White
• Water Division: 6
• Date: 1/1/1983
• Author: USGS
• Title: Reservoir Development Impacts on Surface-Water Quantity and Quality in the Yampa River Basin - Colorado and Wyoming - 1983
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

001883

projected impacts of coal-resource and associated economic development on the re-
gional water resources of the Yampa River basIn (Steele and others, 1976a; 1976b).

An extension of the multi reservoir-flow model section of this report recently
has been completed by Veenhuis and Hi 11 ier (1982). The extended work principally
'shows effects of additional variations of water use for the proposed agricultural
and transmountain diversions with some reservoir configurations as given in this
report. The Veenhuis and Hill ier (1982) study, by simulating the different degrees
of development, provides a greater range of alternatives for basin managers or
planners to consider.

The techniques and procedures used in the model-analysis sections of this
report are presented in considerable detail so that the appl icability to other
river basins can be determined. Results of this report, however, are summarized in
less detail for the planner or declsionmaker in a Phase-I I summary report (Steele
and Hillier, 1981).

Appreciation is extended to the following individuals who contributed to the
study: D. B. Tramberg, appl ication and calIbration of the dissolved-sol ids model
developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; T. L. Washington, data coding; and
S. M. Hofford, data processing and modeling application.

MODEL DESCRIPTIONS

The computer models used in this study were selected from several available
operational models. Some of the guidel ines of the model-selection procedure used
for this study are defined by Jennings and others (1976). The choice of these
three particuiar models is not an endorsement because other mrdels also could have
been used. The multi reservoir-flow model chosen was the HEC-3 streamflow-routing
model developed by the U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers (1968) and uses techniques
discussed by Rutter and Engstrom (1964). The dissolved-sol ids model chosen waS
the NWOl river-salinity routing model developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
(Rlbbens, 1975). The single-reservoir model chosen was an adaptation (Adams, .1974)
of the reservoir-stratification and concentration-prediction model developed at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Markofsky and Harleman, 1971).

The multi reservoir-flow model was developed to perform multipurpose, multi-
reservoir routings of streamflow in a river basin. The Yampa River basin was
depicted in the model by designating control points at reservoirs, diversions, re-
turn flows, and strea.m confluences. Monthly incremental runoff (runoff occurring
between a control point and any control points immediately upstream) was specified
for each control point. The total streamflow was then computed at each control
point by summing the upstream incremental runoff values. Monthly diversions or re-
turn flows were specified for the appropriate control points. For each reservoir,
monthly evaporation rates, outflow capacity, area-capacity curves, and the operat-
ing rules were specified. Operating rules were entered into the model by using six

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