| OCR Text |
Show 45 The mean annual precipitation for the Great Salt Lake Drainage Area is shown in Figure 5. The mean annual water yield, or runoff, of the Great Salt Lake Drainage Basin is shown in Figure 6. The relationship between precipitation and yield which reflects the effect of elevation and temperature in the Basin, is very useful in forecasting summer water supply from snow survey measurements in the mountains. The ratio between those two measurements in the Great Salt Lake Drainage Area varies from more than 50 percent in the high Wasatch Mountains to near zero percent in the Great Salt Lake Desert. Surface Inflow Five to sixty inches of precipitation in the Great Salt Lake Basin collects into water courses until it enters the Lake as surface inflow, which accounts for approximately half of the total annual inflow. The major tributaries providing surface inflow to Great Salt Lake are from the Bear, Weber, and Jordan Rivers. Some of the smaller streams and industrial plants which discharge into the Great Salt Lake are Farmington, Centerville, Holms, Ricks, Parrish, Stone and Mill Creeks, and American, Chevron, Husky, and Phillips Petroleum Companies, Union Pacific, Utah Power & Light, Salt Lake Stock Yards, Salt Lake City Sewage Canal and Kennecott Drain. These sources generally contribute from 5 to 10 percent of the total flow of the Jordan, Weber, and Bear Rivers. Because many of the streams are used for agricultural purposes and due to phreatophytic vegetation near the Lake shore, significant flows from those streams do not reach the Lake. Figure 7 diagrams the mean annual surface inflow to the Lake, which totals 1,600,000 acre- feet. |
