| Table of Contents |
| Introduction |
| The Importance of Tributary Basins to the Snake River |
| Snake River Basin - Tributary Basin Relationships |
| Land Use Data |
| Water Level Measurements |
| Stream Flow Data |
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Basins tributary to the Snake River in the SR3 study area cover parts
of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon. The Snake River from Jackson
Lake, Wyoming to Brownlee Dam, on the Idaho-Oregon border, is nearly 700
miles long. The tributary basins, combined with the east and west parts
of the Snake River Plain, drain more than 72,000 square miles (46,000,000
acres). Depending on the scale or detail with which the Snake River drainage
system is examined, there are at least 60 separate streams or drainages
that connect to the main stem of the river or at least deliver water to
the Snake River Plain (Kjelstrom, 1986; Peterson, 1988).
Jackson Lake is the beginning of the Snake River. The lake is nestled
at the base of the Teton Mountains within Grand Teton National Park
About 15,300 square miles of the study area is associated with the Snake
River Plain with an additional 56,000 square miles within the hydrologic
units that extend up the tributary basins.
Water in the Snake River begins its journey flowing south through Jackson
Hole, as shown in photo to left.. The major tributaries in this region
include the Gros Ventre River, Hoback River, Greys River, and the Salt
River.
More than twenty tributary streams feed into the Snake River in the eastern portion of the Snake River basin. The larger tributaries in this area include: Henrys Fork, Teton River, Falls River, Big Wood River, Blackfoot River, Big Lost River, and Portneuf River. The Snake River drops in elevation from more than 5,015 feet on the eastern side of the plain, to about 2,100 feet on the western edge near Weiser, Idaho.
The most downstream reach for this study, the Middle Snake-Boise sub
basin, extends from King Hill to Brownlee Dam and includes the western
Snake River Plain. The western Snake River Plain is about 50 miles wide
and 145 miles long (Newton, 1991). The major tributaries in this region
include: Payette River, Boise River, Weiser River, Owhyee River, Bruneau
River, Malheur River, Powder River, and Burnt River.
The Importance of Tributary
Basins to the Snake River
While the flow of water within the Snake River receives a tremendous
amount of attention, it is necessary to take a closer look at the areas
where the flow originates. Precipitation is the sole source of recharge
in tributary basins. The Oregon Climate Service (Daly, 1998) created an
average annual precipitation map for the Western United States covering
the time period 1961-1990 (see map to left). This map shows that within
the Snake River Plain precipitation is less than 15 inches per year with
some areas receiving less than 10 inches per year. Precipitation totals
in the tributary basins can exceed 60 inches per year. These maps were
created using the Parameter-Elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes
Model (PRISM).
Two factors stand out as reasons to include tributary basins when discussing
the flow of water within the Snake River. First, the majority of recharge
occurs within the tributary basins. Second, the large areas associated
with the tributary basins provide opportunities for development and use
of water within the tributary basins themselves. Use of water within a
tributary basin can affect the quantity and timing of water availability
to the Snake River.
Snake River Basin: River-Tributary Basin Relationships
A basin tributary to the Snake River represents a geographical area with a stream or other body of water, surface or underground, that contributes water to the Snake River, even in small or intermittent quantities. With so many streams and rivers that deliver water to the Snake River, the scale or size of a basin has to be considered in allocating resources for studies or management programs.
Much of the data presented here will use the term “HUCs” (hydrologic
unit code), often used synonymously with cataloging units. Cataloging
units are the smallest division set aside by the USGS as a system of nomenclature
dividing the United States into several large geographic basins or regions
that represent hydrologic systems. A cataloging unit may represent
a portion of a basin (example- Little Lost), or a combination of drainage
basins (example, Upper Snake). In the SR3 study area, there are 53
cataloging units; 26 in the Upper Snake sub basin and 27 in the Middle
Snake Sub basin. See illustrations that follow.
Many different hydrologic relationships could exist between a river
and its tributaries. Within the Snake River Basin, three main categories
are readily identified:
A. A tributary stream that is not connected to the Snake
River.
B. A tributary stream that is connected to the Snake River.
Surface water and ground water are not hydraulically interconnected.
C. A tributary stream connected to the Snake River. Surface
water and ground water are at least partially interconnected.
Category A-Examples In the northeastern portion of the Snake
River Plain, located within the State of Idaho, there are several streams
which the Bureau of Reclamation grouped in their SR3 Blueprint (1996) under
the heading “Streams that disappear into the Snake Plain Aquifer” (see
figure below). These streams, located on the northern portion of the Upper
Snake sub basin, are not tiny ephemeral streams. The largest of the group,
the Big Lost River, annually delivers more than 200,000 acre-feet of water
that travels down the river to “disappear” or infiltrate into the Snake
River Plain. Others in this group include Camas-Beaver Creek, Medicine
Lodge Creek, Birch Creek, and Little Lost River. Combined, these basins
are the source for over 9 percent (945,000 ac-ft) of the annual water contributions
to the Upper Snake River Basin (data from Kjelstrom, 1986).
Category B-Examples: IDWR (Idaho Department of Water Resources,
1997) has described the Rexburg Bench- Moody Creek region as an area that
is not hydraulically interconnected with the regional aquifer. In another
example, Horn and Jeong (1989), have suggested a similar interpretation
describing the Camas Creek basin, Idaho.
Category C-Examples: The third category represents most of the tributary basins. Most of the tributary streams are considered to have at least some degree of interconnectedness with their associated aquifers. It may be difficult in some areas to determine if the associated ground water is the regional system or a perched zone.
Land Use Data
Recent land use GIS data were obtained from the respective state
agencies of Idaho, Wyoming, and Oregon and used to identify presently irrigated
lands (see figure below). Oregon is in the process of converting older
data sets to useable GIS files; however, they did provide that portion
of the data currently available. There are more areas of agricultural use
than shown in Oregon and that data should be available to incorporate into
a data set in the near future. Data from Idaho did enable acreage tabulation
of the irrigated and non-irrigated lands. See the table below which provides
a summary of the distribution of irrigated and non-irrigated acres for
HUCs in Idaho.
Teton, Raft, Portneuf, and Blackfoot are those HUCs which contain significant
non-irrigated lands with potential for conversion to irrigation. Of the
eight HUCs with the largest irrigated acreage, seven are located primarily
on the Snake River Plain, see figure below.
The water table data from monitoring wells, provided by the USGS, contains measurements from more that 1300 wells within that portion of the Snake River Basin located in Idaho (see figure below). A summary of the information obtained from these wells is published by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the State of Idaho and other agencies in their annual report entitled Water Resources Data-Idaho. The majority of wells are located within those regions where competition for water has been more intense, such as the Eastern Snake River Plain.
Most wells show annual fluctuations of less than ten feet. Notable
exceptions include wells in Bruneau, Willow, and Teton where annual fluctuations
can vary to a maximum of 50 to 65 feet .
The figures below summarize the water table data. The first figure
list locations of wells used to illustrate changes in ground water levels.
The second figure illustrates the fluctuations in the water table over
time.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
Stream Flow Data
Most tributary streams are considered to be at least somewhat hydraulically
interconnected with the aquifer, changes in stream flow can affect the
amount of water available for aquifer recharge. Also, significant changes
in the quantity of ground water diverted or the amount of surface water
consumptively used might be indicated by a reduction in stream flow relative
to other nearby tributaries. See following table for a summary
of stream flows in the Snake River Basin.
For a more detailed look at the SR3 Tributary Basins see the Research
Technical Completion report, "Assessment of Needs and Approaches for
Evaluating Ground Water and Surface Water Interactions for Hydrologic Units
in the Snake River Basin", 1999, Lovell, Mark D. and Johnson, Gary S.,
Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, University of Idaho, Moscow,
Idaho, p. 170. For the references used for this page click on references
below:
