Abstract
The Yampa River in northwestern Colorado is the largest, relatively unregulated river system in the upper
Colorado River Basin. Water from the Yampa River Basin continues to be sought for a number of municipal, industrial,
and energy uses. It is anticipated that future water development within the Yampa River Basin above the amount of
water development identified under the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Implementation Program and
the Programmatic Biological Opinion may require additional analysis in order to understand the effects on habitat and
river function. Water development in the Yampa River Basin could alter the streamflow regime and, consequently,
could lead to changes in the transport and storage of sediment in the Yampa River at Deerlodge Park. These changes
could affect the physical form of the reach and may impact aquatic and riparian habitat in and downstream from
Deerlodge Park.
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, began a study in
2011 to characterize the current hydrodynamic and sediment-transport conditions for a 2-kilometer reach of the Yampa
River in Deerlodge Park. Characterization of channel conditions in the Deerlodge Park reach was completed through
topographic surveying, grain-size analysis of streambed sediment, and characterization of streamflow properties. This
characterization provides (1) a basis for comparisons of current stream functions (channel geometry, sediment
transport, and stream hydraulics) to future conditions and (2) a dataset that can be used to assess channel response
to streamflow alteration scenarios indicated from computer modeling of streamflow and sediment-transport conditions.
|
First posted December 23, 2013
Part or all of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF). For best results viewing and printing PDF documents, it is recommended that you download the documents to your computer and open them with Adobe Reader. PDF documents opened from your browser may not display or print as intended. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge.
|