Talk:Green River (Utah)

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[edit] USGS Flow data

USGS Flow data disputes the contention made at the head of this article that the Green has greater flow than the upper Colorado River. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.190.185.54 (talk) 21:16, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I think you are right, but still, got to be careful with those realtime streamflow stats. A better measure is long-term mean annual flow, which can be found for Utah in these PDFs: http://pubs.usgs.gov/wdr/2004/wdr-ut-04/ . It appears that the first two gaging stations are quite a bit upriver from the Green-Colorado confluence, but if we go by those the rates are 7226 cfs annual mean (1914-2004) for the Colorado River, and 6121 cfs annual mean (1905-2004) for the Green River. If I get around to it I'll try to add this info. Pfly (talk) 00:50, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I agree with your edit summary on the main page about the flow information added to the lead paragrah, so I was bold and changed it based in the information in the report you linked above (and verified with the stream flow information here: [1]). By all accounts, 8000 cfs annual mean is indeed too high. Also, the stated maximum and minimum flows of 2000 and 50,000 cfs are incorrect, or at the very worst, the data is impacted by pre-dam flows. Currently, the minimum seems to be pretty consistent from year to year, which I suspect is by design. The maximum does vary from year to year depending on the snowpack, but the 66,000 cfs maximum listed in the report is from 1917 which was pre-dam - I find it very unlikely you'll see any flows like that now. If User:Pfly or anybody else can find some reliable sources for the minimum and maximum yearly flows for the last 50 years or so, then please add them. CosmicPenguin (Talk) 23:39, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

The Colorado River Gage is around Cisco, below where the Dolores River empties into the Colorado. The Colorado recieves no more significant inflow until it's confluence with the Green. So you are indeed right when you say the Upper Colorado River is indeed larger than the Green River. I should know, I boat both rivers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.33.151.36 (talk) 07:51, 21 January 2008 (UTC)