Sources of Suspended-Sediment Loads in the Lower Nueces River Watershed, Downstream from Lake Corpus Christi to the Nueces Estuary, South Texas, 1958-2010.

摘要

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District; City of Corpus Christi; Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority; San Antonio River Authority; and San Antonio Water System, developed, calibrated, and tested a Hydrological Simulation ProgramFORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model to simulate streamflow and suspended-sediment concentrations and loads during 19582010 in the lower Nueces River watershed, downstream from Lake Corpus Christi to the Nueces Estuary in south Texas. Data available to simulate suspended-sediment concentrations and loads consisted of historical sediment data collected during 194282 in the study area and suspended-sediment concentration data collected periodically by the USGS during 20067 and 2010 at three USGS streamflow-gaging stations (08211000 Nueces River near Mathis, Tex. (the Mathis gage), 08211200 Nueces River at Bluntzer, Tex. (the Bluntzer gage), and 08211500 Nueces River at Calallen, Tex. (the Calallen gage)), and at one ungaged location on a Nueces River tributary (USGS station 08211050 Bayou Creek at Farm Road 666 near Mathis, Tex.). The Mathis gage is downstream from Wesley E. Seale Dam, which was completed in 1958 to impound Lake Corpus Christi. Suspended-sediment data collected before and after completion of Wesley E. Seale Dam provide insights to the effects of the dam and reservoir on suspended-sediment loads transported by the lower Nueces River downstream from the dam to the Nueces Estuary. Annual suspended-sediment loads at the Nueces River near the Mathis, Tex., gage were considerably lower for a given annual mean discharge after the dam was completed than before the dam was completed.