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o c~... .... N -J N CANADIA1i' RIVER BASIN The Canadian River rises in northeastern New Mexico where it flows southward to Conchas Reservoir and then eastward across New Mexico, the Texas panhandle, and most of Oklahoma to join the Arkansas River below Webbers Falls, Oklahoma. The length of the stream is about 900 miles, the total drainage area is 47,705 square miles, and elevations range from 12,000 to 450 feet above mean sea level. About 50 percent of the drainage area is in mountain areas or in high rolling plateaus in the west, 30 percent in the level plains, and 20 percent in low rOlling prairies. Excluding the North Canadian River Basin, about 42 percent of the drainage area is in New Mexico, 35 percent in Texas, and 22 percent in Oklahoma. AImual precipitation in the basin varies from 15 inches in New Mexico to about 42 inches in eastern Oklahoma. The stream floWll through formations of sedimentary shales and sand- stones through a large part of its length. It emerges from the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains near Raton, New MeXico, and floYB southward across the plains to Taylor Springs where it becomes entrenched in .. narrow deep canyon. This canyon at Conchas Reservoir is about 200 feet below the level of the high mesas. DOWIllltream from this point the river gradually cuts deeper into the rolling terrain until a l118J[imum of 500 or 600 feet below the High Plains is reached near Amarillo, Texas. The canyon effect largely disappears near Tascosa, Texas, and the width of basin becomes comparatively I18.rrow in the doWIllltream portions of Texas and western Oklahoma. The Permian redbeds are encountered throughout western Oklahoma and extend beyond the Union dam site near Oklahoma City. Since 1938 the regimen of the stream has been altered by Conchas Reservoir in New Mexico, which controls 7,319 square miles of drainage area and has a capacity of about 370,000 acre-feet for use by an irri- gation project near Tucumcari, New Mexico, and conservation, An addi- tional capacity of 196 ,000 acre-feet 18 provided for flood-eontrol detention storage, Headwater tributaries are perennial streams, but through the Texas Panhandle and western and central OklahOIllB., the stream goes dry during sustained periods of low precipitation. Ground water yields from the river alluvium are small in Texas and Oklahoma. Water 18 rather highly mineralized. Dissolved solids cons18t principally of sulphates and bicarbonates. In the lower portion of the basin there 18 art1:f'icial pollution from oilfield wastes. Large channel losses occur throughout reach of river from Conchas Reservoir to central OklahOIllB.. 2-8