Surface Water Inflow
Highlights:
The Cherry Creek sub-basin is the largest in the watershed (234,000 acres) and contributes the majority of streamflow into the Reservoir. Cottonwood Creek, the next largest source of inflows into the Reservoir, has a sub-basin of 9,050 acres, approximately 4% of the total watershed.
The equipment at Cherry Creek upstream of the Reservoir that has historically been used to measure inflows to the Reservoir was damaged in large storm events in WY 2023 and again in the early spring of 2024. A new site, CC-9.5, upstream near the section of Cherry Creek in the stabilized area where the Aurora waterline crosses was installed in the fall of 2024, which will be used in the future measurements.
CT-2, the site upstream of the Reservoir on Cottonwood Creek is used to measure the inflow contribution from Cottonwood Creek. Inflow and storage information and relative inflows were used in WY 2024 to inform the water balance.
Proportion of Surface Water Inflow into Cherry Creek Reservoir (5 Year Average)
The damage from the storms in 2023 damaged the monitoring equipment at the site historically used to calculate inflow from Cherry Creek into Cherry Creek Reservoir. As an alternative and similar to WY 2023, the inflow values provided by the USACE, precipitation, and groundwater, were used to estimate surface water inflow based on the mean five-year relative contributions, 71% for Cherry Creek and 29% for Cottonwood Creek. This method appears to be representative based on the information available.
A new site, CC-9.5, upstream near the section of Cherry Creek in the stabilized where the Aurora waterline crosses was installed in 2024 to collect stream level on telemetry. Manual flow measurements were completed to develop the rating curve at this site so continuous flow can be calculated and used to represent Cherry Creek inflows in future years.
More CCBWQA streamflow gage station details, including additional sites, can be found on the CCBWQA Stream Logger Data Viewer.
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