Oregon District Active Projects

OR001 Surface Water Stations

PROJECT CHIEF: Tom Herrett
LOCATION: State of Oregon
PROJECT EXTENT: Statewide

BACKGROUND

Surface-water information is needed for purposes of surveillance, planning, design, hazard warning, operation, and management in water-related fields such as water supply, hydroelectric power, flood control, irrigation, bridge and culvert design, wildlife management, pollution abatement, flood-plain management, and water resources development. To provide this information an appropriate data base is necessary.

OBJECTIVES

• A. To collect surface-water data sufficient to satisfy needs for current- purpose uses, such as:
  
  • Water-resource assessments
  • Reservoir operation
  • Forecasting
  • Industrial operations
  • Waste disposal
  • Pollution controls
  • Discharge data to accompany water-quality measurements
  • Compact and legal requirements
  • Research or special studies.

• B. To collect data necessary to define for any location the statistical properties of and trends in water in streams, lakes, estuaries, etc., for use in planning and design.

APPROACH

Standard methods of data collection will be used as described in the series, "Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations of the United States Geological Survey." Partial-record gaging will be used instead of complete-record gaging where it serves the required purpose.

STREAMFLOW MONITORING NETWORK STATUS

The Oregon network collects the following data:

• Discharge at 181 continuous-record gaging stations on streams, canals, and drains
• Discharge at 47 partial-record and miscellaneous sites
• Water quality at 127 stream sites
• Water quality at 2 atmospheric deposition stations
• Water quality at 11 ground-water sites
• Stage and/or contents for 26 lakes and reservoirs