HISTORY OF SUSPENDED-SEDIMENT DATA COLLECTION AND INVENTORY OF AVAILABLE DATA FOR THE TENNESSEE AND CUMBERLAND RIVER BASINS U.S. GEOLOGICAL SU Open-File Report 88-4 Prepared in cooperation with the TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIWRSITY HISTORY OF SUSPENDED-SEDIMENT DATA COLLECTION AND INVENTORY OF AVAILABLE DATA FOR THE TENNESSEE AND CUMBERLAND RIVER BASINS By William P. Carey, Russell T. Brown, and Carrie G. Chatham U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Open-File Report 88-497 Prepared in cooperation with the TENNESSEE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY Nashville, Tennessee 1988 DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR DONALD PAUL HODEL, Secretary U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Dallas L. Peck, Director For a&i&&al infomration write to: Copiesof this sport can bepurcharedfrom: District Chief U.S. GeologicalSurvey U.S. GeologicalSurvey Booksand Open-File Reports Services A-413 Federal Bldg. FederalCenter, Bldg. 810 - U.S. Courthouse Box 25425 ’ Nashville,TN 37203 Denver,CO 80225 CONTENTS Abstract 1 Introduction 1 History of suspended-sediment data collection 2 Tennessee River basin 2 TVA data 2 Geological Survey data 7 Cumberland River basin 9 Sampling methods and samplers used 10 History of reservoir construction 13 Data inventory 13 Previous inventories 13 Inventory tables 15 Individual station comments 15 Tennessee River basin 33 Cumberland River basin 44 Other sources of sediment related data 47 Reservoir-accumulation data 47 Turbidity data 47 Summary 49 Selected references 50 ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Map showing location of dailysediment sampling stations in the Tennessee and Cumberland River basins 4 2. Graph showing number of samplesper station in the Tennessee River basin 8 3. Graph showing number of samples per station in the Cumberland River basin 10 4. Photograph showing TVA suspended-sedimentsampler used prior to 1943 11 5. Graph showing sediment yield in the Tennessee River basin 48 TABLES Table 1. Chronological listing of reservoirs constructed in the TennesseeRiver basin 14 2. Summary of suspended-sediment data in the Tennessee River basin 16 3. Summary of suspended-sediment data in the Cumberland River basin 27 . ill CONVERSiON FACTORS For those readers who may prefer to use metric units rather than inch-pound units, conversion factors for the terms used in this report are listed below: Multiply inch-pound units BY To obtain metric units acre-foot (acre-ft) 1,234 cubic meter (m ) foot (ft) 0.3048 meter (m) mile (mi) 1.609 kilometer (km) square mile (mi2) 2.590 square kilometer ( km2) pound (lb) 0.4536 kilogram (kg) ton, short 0.9078 megagrams (Mg) cubic foot per second (f$/s) 0.02832 cubic meter per second (m’/s) iv HISTORY OF SUSPENDED-SEDIMENT DATA COLLECTION AND INVENTORY OF AVAILABLE DATA FOR THE TENNESSEE AND CUMBERLAND RIVER BASINS by William P. Carey, Russell T. Brown, and Carrie G. Chatham ABSTRACT for various periods on 17 basins ranging in size from 0.67 to 1,977 square miles, with the earliest Since the early 1930’s, a considerable date of daily record being October 1953. All of amount of suspended-sediment data has been these daily stations are located in the upper Gum- collected in the Tennessee and Cumberland berland River basin upstream of any major im- River basins, primarily by the Tennessee Valley poundments. Authority and the U.S. Geogical Survey. These data setscover a wide range of drainage areasand Periodic sediment data have been collected sampling frequencies. The most valuable data by the U.S. Geological Survey at 194 stations in sets are those where the frequency of sampling the TennesseeRiver basin and at 106 stations in was sufficient to compute daily sediment records. the Cumberland River basin, however, the num- ber of samples per station is quite low. Eighty- In 1934 and 1935, the Tennessee Valley six percent of the periodic stations in the Authority established 5 1 daily record suspended- Tennessee River basin and 91 percent of the pe- sediment stations on the TennesseeRiver and its riodic stations in the Cumberland River basin major tributaries. Most of these stations were have 30 samples or less. operated for 3 to 4 years, but nine of the stations were operated for 8 years. From 1962 to 1965, the Tennessee Valley Authority again collected INTRODUCTION daily sediment record at 10 of the original 5 1 sta- tions. In addition to the data sets collected on Documented attempts to determine the the major rivers, the TennesseeValley Authority concentration of suspended solids in water has conducted several intensive studies of small samples obtained from the Cumberland and watersheds throughout the Tennessee River TennesseeRiver basins date back to an investiga- Basin. tion of water quality in the eastern United States by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1905 and 1906 In the Cumberland River basin, daily sedi- (Dole, 1909). Since that time, a considerable ment records have been collected primarily by amount of suspended-sediment data has been the Survey. Daily stations have been operated collected in these two basins primarily by the 1 Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the able in machine-readable format; the number of Geological Survey. In a study of sediment yields observations is generally low; some lack cor- in these basins, Trimble and Carey (1984) found responding water-discharge data; and some of that data collected since 1960 had not been the data are proprietary. Therefore, it was inventoried and that a vast amount of data col- decided that this history and inventory would be lected by TVA was not readily available in com- limited to data that had been collected and puter storage. In 1985, the Geological Survey, in analyzed by generally accepted procedures as cooperation with the Tennessee Technological described by Guy and Norman (1970), and that University, began an effort to document the his- are readily available on the Geological Survey tory of suspended-sediment data collection in WATSTORE data base. These provisions essen- these basins and to enter most of the TVA data tially restricted consideration to the Geological into computer storage on the Geological Survey and TVA data sets. Survey’s National Water Data Storage and Retrieval System (WATSTORE). HISTORY OF SUSPENDED- The description of previous data-collection SEDIMENT DATA COLLECTION efforts not only provides necessaryinformation for the proper use and interpretation of the data, TENNESSEE RIVER BASIN but it also helps preserve valuable information pertaining to the history of hydrology in general TVA Data and to sediment studies in particular. This report presents a descriptive history of In 1933, when the TVA was created and suspended-sediment data collection in the Ten- began planning the development of the Ten- nessee and Cumberland River basins, but is nesseeValley (the Valley), there was very little restricted to data which are considered to be rep- information available on the sediment loads of resentative of cross-section mean concentra- rivers and streams in the Valley. The only data tions, and which are readily available in the readily available were from single vertical dip WATSTORE system. In recent years, the num- samples at two stations published in 1909 by ber of federal, state, and local agencies, plus Dole, and from sedimentation surveys of four universities and private consultants that have existing reservoirs. It was generally known that been collecting data on suspended solids has sediment loads in the Valley were relatively low, been constantly increasing. This was particular- particularly when compared to some western ly true in the late seventies and early eighties streams. However, more comprehensive data when many agencies, universities, consultants, were needed for TVA to estimate the useful lives and individual companies were collecting water- of the reservoirs being planned for the Valley. quality data including suspended solids in the coal-inining areas of the Tennesseeand Cumber- Realizing this need for information on land River basins. To attempt an inventory of all sediment loads, TVA began an investigation to of these data would be a monumental task of determine the amount of sediment transported questionable merit, becauseavariety of samplers by the TennesseeRiver and its major tributaries. and sampling schemeswere employed in collect- During 1934 and 1935, 51 suspended-sediment ing these data; the data are generally not avail- sampling stations were established on rivers and 2 streams in the Tennessee Valley (fig. 1). These March, and June 1934) and was moved to Hiwas- stations were located at or near the proposed see River above Murphy, N.C. (DA = 406 mi2) in sites of major reservoirs and on the larger May 1940, where it continued until May 1942. tributaries above proposed reservoirs. Where The remaining seven long-term stations are possible, the stations were located at or near Powell River near Arthur, Tenn., Valley River at Geological Survey stream-gaging stations. Tomotla, N.C., Nottely River near Ranger, NC., Samples were collected primarily during runoff Tennessee River at Chattanooga, Tenn., Ten- events, but a sufficient number of samples were nessee River at Hales Bar, Tenn., Tennessee collected between runoff events to allow TVA to River at Savannah,Tenn., and Tennessee River compute daily sediment discharge. The periods near Johnsonville, Tenn. of record for the sediment-sampling stations varied from 6 months at two stations to approx- Several of these long-term stations were imately 8 years at nine key stations. Most sta- operated to study the sediment-trapping charac- tions were operated for 3 to 4 years during the teristics of the reservoirs. Clinch River above interval from 1934 to 1942. During the period Tazewell and Powell River near Arthur provided from 1934 to 1938, some stations were moved, a measure of sediment inflow to Norris Lake some were discontinued, and some had sampling after it reached minimum pool elevation in start after 1935. Ultimately, different locations March 1936. Hiwassee River above Murphy, were sampled during this time period.