Hydrology and Hydrogeology of Navajo Lake Kane County, Utah GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 417-C Prepared in cooperation with the Utah Water and Power Board and with the Cedar City Corporation Hydrology and Hydrogeology of Navajo Lake Kane County, Utah By M. T. WILSON and H. E. THOMAS CONTRIBUTIONS TO STREAM-BASIN HYDROLOGY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 417-C Prepared in cooperation with the Utah If^ater and Power Board and with the Cedar City Corporation UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1964 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Thomas B. Nolan, Director The U.S. Geological Survey Library Catalog card for this publication follows page C26 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 CONTENTS Page Page Abstract _ ________________________________________ Cl Hy drology Continue d Introduction.______________________________________ 2 Underground facilities for storage and movement Hydrogeography of Navajo Lake and environs-____ 2 of water.________________________________ C15 Development of the Navajo Lake problem_________ 3 Hydrogeology._____________________________________ 16 Purpose and scope of study._____________________ 4 Rocks and their water-bearing properties._________ 16 Hydrology _________________________________________ 5 Pre-Cenozoic rocks__________________________ 16 Stream-gaging stations_________________________ 5 Wasatch Formation.._______________________ 17 Records of Navajo Lake.._______________________ 6 Silicic volcanic rocks._______________________ 18 Test procedure-________________________________ 6 Basalt______________________ 18 Navajo Sinks____________________________ 7 Alluvium- _________________________________ 19 Duck Creek Sinks._________________________ 9 Geomorphology of-the Markagunt Plateau_________ 19 Water quality._________________________________ 9 Pattern of surface drainage-_________________ 19 Variations observed in 1954-58 and frequency of oc­ Distribution of basalt flows-_________________ 20 currences of high and low years_______________ 11 Solution of limestone._______________________ 20 Conclusions based on data collected in 1954-58_---_ 12 Geologic history-_--_-__--____-----------_----_- 21 Relation of Navajo Lake to Cascade and Duck Cenozoic sequence_____________-__--__---___ 21 Creek springs.___________________________ 12 Piracy by the Virgin River___________________ 21 Other sources of water in major springs______ 14 Ground water in the Plateau.____________________ 22 Water regimen and supply of Navajo Lake_____ 15 References cited____________________-________-----_- 25 ILLUSTRATIONS [Plates 1-3 are In pocket] PLATE 1. Geologic map of the Navajo Lake region. 2. Effect of basalt eruptions on drainage, Navajo Lake region. 3. Sinks and closed depressions in the Navajo Lake region. Page FIGURE 1. Map showing drainage areas of the Navajo Lake region-_______________________________-----_---_----_- C2 2. Lava flow forming east boundary of Navajo Lake-______--__---_----_______---------_---- T ------------- 3 3. Monthly runoff of Sevier River at Hateh____^_________________________________________--------------- 4 4. Gaging station for Cascade Spring_______________________________________________-____--------------- 6 5. Low-water flow and entrance to Cascade Cave____________________________----------__---------------- 6 6. Duck Creek Spring._______________________________________________________________________________ 6 7. Hydraulic characteristics of Navajo Lake_______________________________--_-________---------------- 7 8. Navajo Lake dike._________________________________________-_-______-____-__-__-__--------------_- 8 9. Largest sink hole in Navajo Lake_______________________________-____________-___-___-------_-------- 8 10. Hydrographs of four springs, September 3-10, 1954________________________-__--__---__------------_--- 10 11. Variations in runoff________________________________________________________________________________ 12 12. Hydrographs of Duck Creek, Cascade Spring, and Asay Greek._________________________________________ 13 13. Hydrographs of Mammoth Spring near Hatch, Utah, 1954-57_________________-__-____--_-_----------- 23 14. Relation between precipitation and runoff for Sevier River at Hatch, Utah_____________________________ 25 15. Relation between precipitation and runoff for Sevier River at Hatch, Utah, adjusted for antecedent conditions- 25 TABLES Page TABLE 1. Primary gaging stations in Navajo Lake region._____________________ C5 2. Observed flow from Navajo Sinks to various springs._______________ 9 3. Partial analyses of water from Navajo Lake and from selected springs. 11 4. Generalized section of rock formations in eastern Iron County_______ 16 5. Section of Wasatch Formation, Cedar Breaks National Monument- _ _ 18 ill CONTRIBUTIONS TO STREAM-BASIN HYDROLOGY HYDROLOGY AND HYDROGEOLOGY OF NAVAJO LAKE, UTAH By M. T. WILSON and H. E. THOMAS ABSTRACT sinks appeared at Cascade Spring within 8% hours and at Duck Creek Spring in 53 hours. All the water entering Navajo Sinks Navajo Lake, whose entire outflow disappears underground, eventually discharged from Cascade and Duck Creek Springs is on the high Markagurit Plateau where the average annual when sufficient time was allowed to drain the added storage precipitation is more than 30 inches. It nestles among the head­ from the ground-water reservoir. The apportionment was 60 waters of several streams that flow into arid regions where percent to Duck Creek Spring and 40 percent to Cascade Spring. competition for municipal, industrial, and irrigation water sup­ Water issuing from Duck Creek Spring flows about 2% miles plies is very keen. Several proposals for additional develop­ eastward and enters Duck Creek Sinks. During August 1954, ment and use of the water of Navajo Lake have led to contro­ water released to Duck Creek Sinks caused an increased flow versies and raised questions in regard to the total water supply from Lower Asay Spring in 9 hours, and fluorescein dye showed and its disposition, and to the effect of the proposed projects on a travel time of 68 hours. Lower Asay Spring is a major con­ existing water rights. This report summarizes the results of tributor to the base flow of the Sevier River. an investigation of the water supply of Navajo Lake and the The annual inflow to Navajo Lake including precipitation present disposition of that supply. directly on the lake during the period 1954-58 ranged from 14 Navajo Lake is in the northwest corner of Kane County in percent (1955, 1956) to 283 percent (1958) of the long-term southwestern Utah in a closed basin, which is bounded on the average. These variations are greater than the contemporane­ north and east by tributaries of the Sevier River in the Great ous variations of streamflow in the adjoining basins, because Basin and on the south and west by tributaries of the Virgin the lake represents the residue from its contributing area after River in the Colorado River basin. The lake was formed by a ground-water reservoirs or aquifers have been filled. Additional lava flow that cut off the natural surface drainage of Duck development of the lake supply would require considerable hold­ Creek, a headwater tributary of the Sevier River. The lake over storage in order to equalize the large year-to-year varia­ receives subterranean inflow from an area appreciably larger tions, and this could have a significant effect on seasonal and than that of the topographic basin in which it lies. It is unique annual distribution of flow in both the Sevier and Virgin River in that large quantities of surface water escape from its eastern basins. end through a sink area by underground channels or aquifers In the geologic history of the region, the earliest event of to feed springs in both adjoining basins. significance to the hydrology of Navajo Lake was the deposition A north-south dike about 17 feet high has been constructed of the Wasatch Formation in the Eocene Epoch, which includes across the lake; the dike separates the western three-fourths a high proportion of fresh-water limestone. Vulcanism, prob­ from the sink area and creates a permanent lake on the west ably during the Miocene, covered these sedimentary rocks with side for flsh propagation and recreation. When the dike is under silicic flows and tuffs over a wide area, but if these volcanic water during parts of high-water years, overflow from the west rocks extended as far south as Navajo Lake they have since side reaches the sink area; also, some of the water stored in disappeared by erosion. Shortly after this volcanic activity, or the lake can be discharged through the dike to the sink area. perhaps during its later stages, there were the beginnings of Cascade Spring in the Colorado River basin is on a steep slope major structural changes chiefly by block faulting through­ only a mile south of the sink area, and Duck Creek Spring in out the extensive Colorado Plateau region. One of these blocks, the Sevier River basin is about 3 miles to the east. elevated sharply along faults on the west and tilted slightly Several gaging stations were installed during the fall of 1953 toward the east, is the block whose surface now forms the and the summer of 1954 to measure the contents of the lake both Markagunt Plateau. Although the uplift of this block probably east and west of the dike, the discharge of surrounding springs, began in mid-Tertiary, the plateau did not attain