Geologic Publications for Mount Rainier

Water powers of the Cascade Range: Part II - Cowlitz, Nisqually, Puyallup, White, Green and Cedar drainage basins

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Author(s): Fred F. Henshaw, Glenn L. Parker

Category: PUBLICATION
Document Type: Water-Supply Paper 313
Publisher: United States Geological Survey
Published Year: 1913
Volume:
Number:
Pages: 179
DOI Identifier:
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Abstract:
This report is the second of a series on the "Water powers of the Cascade Range," prepared by the United States Geological Survey under a cooperative agreement with the Washington State Board of Geological Survey, Prof.-Henry Landes, State geologist. Part I, giving data on the drainage basins of Klickitat, White Salmon, Little White Salmon, Lewis, and Toutle rivers, in southwestern Washington, was prepared by John C. Stevens and has been published as Water-Supply Pager 253.

The drainage basins of Cowlitz (except the Toutle), Nisqually, Puyallup, White, Green, and Cedar rivers are treated in this volume. The matter presented includes all monthly estimates of river discharge derived from data that have been collected by the water resources branch of the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the Washington State Board of Geological Survey and by private parties. River plans and profiles made by the topographic branch of the Geological Survey are inserted at the end of the report. The power possibilities of the streams are described in as much detail as is warranted in a work of this kind. It is desired to emphasize at the outset the fact that complete surveys and plans for development of unused power privileges have not been attempted. Such work is more properly left to those who are contemplating actual development. The purposes of this work are rather to show the power resources of the basins described and to indicate in a general way the relative value of the individual power privileges.

The river surveys, which constitute one of the essential factors in the analysis of power, were made during the field season of 1910 by Bayard Knock and W. B. Lewis, of the topographic branch of the United States Geological Survey, under the direction of T. G. Gerdine, geographer.

A supplementary survey of the upper portion of Cispus River was made during August and September, 1911, by Charles Leidl and W. O. Harmon, under the direction of Fred F. Henshaw, district engineer.

Field reconnaissances were made in most of the basins to gather information relative to water supply, topographic features, and other general conditions which should be considered in the interpretation of stream-flow records and river-profile representations. These reconnaissances were made by G. L. Parker, assistant engineer of the United States Geological Survey.

The methods used in analyzing the stream-flow data are those ordinarily followed by the Geological Survey. They have been fully described in previous reports. 1 The streams investigated are considered in detail. Descriptions and outlines of present hydraulic development, together with short discussions of undeveloped possibilities, are given for each of the drainage basins. All discharge data available on the streams covered have been revised, and a large amount of data collected by private parties is presented for the first time.

The summaries of the available power in each basin were computed from the average flow for the lowest week on record and from the flow that could be realized from possible storage. The flow with storage was computed on the basis of the continuous discharge that can be maintained by the release of the storage during the most extreme drought on record, considering the length and severity of low-water periods. The power schedules are thus made on a slightly different basis from the first report, in which the average minimum discharge represented the mean of the minimum weekly values for a series of years.

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Suggested Citations:
In Text Citation:
Henshaw and Parker (1913) or (Henshaw and Parker, 1913)

References Citation:
Henshaw, F.F. and G.L. Parker, 1913, Water powers of the Cascade Range: Part II - Cowlitz, Nisqually, Puyallup, White, Green and Cedar drainage basins: Water-Supply Paper 313, United States Geological Survey, 179 p..