Chapter 3 Description of the study area Karl G. Taboga and James E. Stafford 3-31 his study examines groundwater resources that The NERB encompasses about 23.75 percent of Tunderlie the aggregated Powder/Tongue/Northeast Wyoming’s total surface area and serves as home to River Basins (collectively designated in this report by approximately 102,000 people, or about 17 percent the acronym “NERB”) in Wyoming, as well as tribu- of the state’s population (Wyoming Department of tary areas in Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska Administration and Information Economic Analysis (fig. 3-1). The NERB in Wyoming covers approximately Division, 2016). The NERB contains 19 incorporated 23,223 mi2 (14.86 million acres), or 23.75 percent of municipalities, 17 unincorporated communities, 11 U.S. Wyoming’s surface area. Tributary watersheds in the Census Designated Places (CDP; table 3-1), and a sub- neighboring states are small, about 613 mi2 (0.39 million stantial rural population. The map in figure 3-1 shows acres). In Wyoming, the NERB includes all of Sheridan, townships, major roads, and incorporated municipalities Campbell, Crook, and Weston Counties, 98 percent of within the NERB. Johnson, 93 percent of Niobrara, 50 percent of Converse, 33 percent of Natrona, and 4 percent of Goshen counties. 3.1 GEOGRAPHIC EXTENT, In Montana, the tributary watershed covers 3 percent PHYSIOGRAPHY, GEOMORPHOLOGY, of Bighorn, 1 percent of Powder River, and 4 percent of AND SURFACE DRAINAGE Carter Counties. In South Dakota, the NERB encom- passes 6 percent of Custer County, and 5 percent of both The NERB consists of eight contiguous river drainages Lawrence and Pennington Counties. The NERB covers located in the northeastern quarter of Wyoming and 1 percent of Sioux County in Nebraska. Unless specific small tributary areas in neighboring states (table 3-2). references are made to the tributary areas outside of Streamflows from all eight rivers move from Wyoming Wyoming, references to the NERB in this memorandum into neighboring states, and ultimately discharge to the refer only to the Wyoming portion. Missouri River. Data from several decades of USGS stream gauge stations tracking average annual stream- flows out of Wyoming are also shown in table 3-2 (Stafford and Gracias, 2009). Table 3-1. Communities located in the NERB. Unincorporated Census designated Municipalities communities places Buffalo Aladdin Antelope Valley Clearmont Alva Arvada Dayton Arminto Beulah Edgerton Banner Big Horn Gillette Beulah Hill View Heights Hulett Bill Lance Creek Kaycee Four Corners Osage Lusk Hiland Parkman Manville Leiter Powder River Midwest Linch Sleepy Hollow Moorcroft Natrona Story Newcastle Recluse ---- Pine Haven Rozet ---- Ranchester Saddlestring ---- Sheridan Weston ---- Sundance Wolf ---- Upton Wyarno ---- Van Tassell ---- ---- Wright ---- ---- 3-32 T5S R53E R54E R55E R56E R57E R58E R59E R60E R61E T16N R31E R32E R33E R34E R35E R36E R37E R38E R39E R40E R41E R42E R43E R44E R45E R46E R47E R48E R49E R50E R51E R52E R1E R2E R3E R4E R30E R5E «¬59 «¬323 Lodge Grass T15N T6S k R O S E B U D Fort Smith r ¤£212 Cree P O W D E R R I V E R River T14N T7S Rive C A R T E R River r T13N T8S B I G H O R N ive B U T T E Grass Tongue River R iver Alzada T9S Reservoir R T12N R30E ¨¦§90 M O N T A N A odge e Owl L Bighorn ¤£85 T58N gu Belle k T11N on A T W Y O M I N G Fourche T57N ree r Missouri T10N T Dayton C «¬112 er Cr ttle Reservoir i Ranchester iv L wde ee T56N 14 o R k T9N ttle O ¤£ Sheridan P wder i alt 14 o L g o ¤£ D S H E R I D A N P G T55N K ¤£14 Belle T8N Creek reek Hulett «¬24 Clearmont C «¬59 N Fourche e i r i a T54N W A Big Horn r T7N E ild ¤£16 C R O O K I Creek P ¤£14 Arvada D T53N Story C Shell £14 T6N ¤ Creek Horse M Goose ¨¦§90 le ¨¦§90 N ey Spearfish tt Sundance Greybull i £14 n ¤ i Keyhole E T5N Clear Creek O T52N L P Lake H T51N Reservoir R DeSmet ¤£16 Cr Y Basin B I G H O R N eek T Lead T4N Gillette Pine Haven ¬116 W Buffalo « 85 T50N ¤£ A Manderson U an Moorcroft W T3N ¨¦§25 L 31 Dead «¬ om Horse ¨¦§90 T49N Crazy ¤£16 O W T2N C A M P B E L L e «¬585 Nowood ch Upton S T48N C ¤£16 reek T1N ver our Caballo Creek F Beaver P E N N - Creek T47N Ri Horse Ten Sleep «¬196 I N G T O N T1S North «¬59 Worland «¬116 T46N J O H N S O N Creek «¬50 Newcastle Hill City W A S H A K I E T2S Ri lle e Beaver T45N v For B Black T3S er W E S T O N k T ¬450 Custer wder Dry h « T44N un ¤£16 o Wright de T4S Kaycee P r «¬387 ¤£85 For «¬450 Cr C U S T E R e d a k c o T43N Fork e t H O T ek S T5S «¬192 k C T42N Middle Salt reek T6S enne S P R I N G S ¨¦§25 Chey «¬89 T41N Fork «¬387 T7S Creek F A L L T40N Edgerton Antelope River Midwest T8S ¤£18 T39N Cree Fork ek Edgemont Cre T9S k T38N «¬259 Dry «¬59 N A T R O N A Creek T10S nce £18 T37N C O N V E R S E a ¤ R I V E R L T11S £20 g T36N ¤ outh tnin S Ligh N I O B R A R A T12S T35N F R E M O N T ¤£26 T35N T34N «¬95 ¤£85 T34N 136 S I O U X «¬ latte «¬93 T33N Casper P T33N Lusk Glenrock ¨¦§25 T32N Douglas Manville Niobrara A ¤£18 ¤£20 G £20 T32N ¤ T31N «¬91 River HK arrison «¬270 N T31N S I T30N «¬94 Glendo T30N 220 «¬ North Reservoir A 487 Glendo M T29N Sweetwater «¬ R iver £287 G O S H E N T29N ¤ iver R P L A T T E O R Pathfinder Reservoir R57W R56W R63W R62W R61W R60W R55W R66W R65W R64W T28N R72W R71W R70W R69W R68W R67W R76W R75W R74W R73W B R77W Y R93W R92W R91W R90W R89W R88W R87W R86W R85W R84W R83W R82W R81W R80W R79W R78W ¤£85 «¬29 A L B A N Y Guernsey E C A R B O N W Bairoil Fort Laramie 25 ¨¦§ N Explanation Index Map N Base Data Base Data (continued) _ City or town County boundary M O N T A N A 0 50 100 200 State or U.S. highway State boundary Interstate highway Basin extent S O U T H River or creek D A K O T A WSGS 2018 Lake or reservoir Projection: NAD 1983 Township boundary UTM Zone 13N W Y O M I N G Data Source: N E B R A S K A Bureau of Land Management, 2008 Figure 3-1. Municipality, road, township, and range index map, NERB,Wyoming. 3-33 Table 3-2. Physical characteristics of the river drainages that compose the NERB. Total surface area Drainage surface Neighboring states Average annual streamflows River Drainage1 (mi2) covered by area (mi2) located in with tributary areas1 (CFS) out of Wyoming 2 this report1 Wyoming1 Little Bighorn River 302 299 Montana 173 Tongue River 1,737 1,609 Montana 430 Powder River 7,979 7,951 Montana 438 Little Powder River 1,381 1,378 Montana 20 Little Missouri River 828 725 Montana 80 Belle Fourche River 3,968 3,881 Montana, South Dakota 116 Cheyenne River 7,043 6,813 South Dakota 85 Upper Niobrara River 550 532 Nebraska 4 *NRCS, 2016, Watershed Boundary Dataset overview, history of hydrologic units and supporting 1 NRCS, 2016 documents: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/ngce/. Stafford, J.E., and Gracias, T., 2009, Surface water resource map of Wyoming—Streamflows and 2 Stafford and Gracias, 2009 storage: Wyoming State Geological Survey Map Series 91, scale 1:500,000. The NERB is located within the Great Plains, Middle parallels the ridge of the Bighorn Mountains. Earliest Rocky Mountain, and Wyoming Basin Physiographic formation of the PRSB likely occurred in the middle Provinces. Major physiographic features, drainages, and Paleocene when rapid subsidence (Curry, 1971) created reservoirs of the NERB are shown on figure 3-2 and plate Lake Lebo, which was subsequently in-filled by fluvial, 1. A map of the physiographic provinces of Wyoming is deltaic, paludal (marshy), and lacustrine deposition of available online at: http://www.wsgs.wyo.gov/products/ eroded sediments from nearby uplifts. The Paleocene wsgs-1989-es-1.pdf (Roberts, 1989). Fort Union Formation crops out along the basin margins and is overlain by the Eocene Wasatch Formation (plate 1). The geomorphology of the NERB (fig. 3-2) is dom- inated by heavily eroded Laramide-aged uplifts that A small portion of the NERB extends onto the northeast border deep intermountain structural basins, which margin of the Wind River Structural Basin (plate 1, fig. are filled with sediments eroded from the uplifts. The 3-2) where the South Fork of the Powder River drains Laramide uplifts are composed of large anticlines that the northern flank of the Rattlesnake Hills. Additionally, have crystalline basement cores. Erosion of the uplifts has the Upper Niobrara River drainage of the NERB extends exposed older geologic formations at higher elevations.