WSP06216

• File Number: 8407.500
• Description: Platte River Basin - River Basin General Publications - Missouri River
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 5/1/1980
• Author: MRBC
• Title: Missouri River Basin Water Resources Management Plan - Part I - Chapters I-VI
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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exclusively and usually irrigate a quarter section of cropland each. They have

grown quickly in popularity during the last decade because of their ease of
installation and operation. The aggregate investment in center pivot systems
within the basin now ranges into the billions of dollars.
Hydroelectric power generation facilities are a major component of water
development activity in the Missouri Basin. Their installed capacity currently
exceeds 3,300 megawatts, representing over 15 percent of the basin's total.
The significance of this capacity is perhaps greater than its percentage of the
total, since it provides a very efficient, pOllution-free source of peaking
power for vast areas within as well as outside the basin. The largest
hydroelectric power installations are at the main-stem dams.
Another major development in the basin is navigation on the main stem of
the Missouri River from sioux City, Iowa, to the mouth near st. Louis,
Missouri. Supported by regulated releases from the main-stem 'reservoirs and

tributary inflows, a channel 9 feet deep and 300 feet wide is maintained over a

distance of 732 river miles. The normal navigation season is April 1 through
December 1 of each year.

Water Use

Estimates of present and projected water use given in this report reflect,
with minor modification, the results of the study conducted by the Commission
for the 1975 National Assessment in cooperation with the U.s. Water Resources
Council. The estimates for present and projected water supply and utilization
were based primarily on basin State estimates of withdrawals and consumption,
flow data contained in the 1971 the Missouri River Basin Comprehensive
Framework Study, and supplemental information provided by Federal agencies.
Water withdrawals from both ground and surface sources in 1975 were

estimated at 38.3-million acre-feet. Withdrawals are projected to increase by