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Year [o year variation in yield may be great. Historical annual yield <br /> has varied from 345,000 ac.f[. in 1977 to 2,135,000 ac.ft. in 1917. <br /> Average annual yield amounts [0 1,116,000 ac. f[. <br />The water supplied by [he Yampa River depends primarily on melting of <br />winter snowpacks on the high mountain slopes surrounding the valley. The <br />lower intermittent drainages produce only a small par[ of the total water <br />yield of the basin (Colorado Water Conservation Board 1969). Walton <br />Creek near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, has a mean annual Elow of 1.9 <br />cubic feet per second per square mile (Steele e[ al 1979) which equals <br />25.8 inches of runoff. Near Craig, Colorado, runoff was measured at less <br />than 1" from 1914 to 1965 (Woodward Clyde 1977). Gaged at Maybell, <br />Colorado, mean annual flow of the Yampa is .42 cfs/m i2, this equals an <br />average of 5.7 inches of runoff for the entire Yampa Valley drainage. <br />• These examples show [he extreme variability between water yield and loca- <br />lion within the drainage basin. <br />Major inorganic constituents of [he Yampa River include Ca, Na and Mg as <br />cations and NC03, 504 and C1 as anions. Total dissolved solids (TDS) <br />loads vary through the year in response to discharge. Table 3-1 shows <br />the variation in concentrations of dissolved solids with discharge at the <br />Maybell gaging station. TDS values decrease during spring runoff due to <br />dilution by high quality snowmel[ runoff. The Colorado Water Conservatio <br />Board (1969) found "Although their water yield is a small part of the <br />basin total, the intermittent streams at the lower elevation produce most <br />of the dissolved solids and suspended sediment that leave the basin. The <br />~ high elevation headwater portion of the basin produces most of the water <br />-7- <br />.~_ . <br />