Monthly and annual suspended-sediment loads in the Brazos River at Richmond, Texas, 1966-86 water years

Sampling to determine suspended-sediment concentrations at the Brazos River at Richmond, Texas, began in January 1966 and ended in September 1986. Depth-integrated samples were collected during all flow conditions. The records for this station are considered good.

The mean monthly suspended-sediment loads in the Brazos River at Richmond ranged from 2,500 to 91,000 tons during the period of record. The annual suspended-sediment load ranged from 404,500 to 30,800,000 tons and averaged about 10,900,000 tons. The minimum annual load of 404,500 tons occurred during the 1984 water year, and the maximum annual load of 30,800,000 tons occurred during the 1968 water year.

Suspended-sediment load and discharge varied throughout the period of study. A double-mass curve indicated that the relation between discharge and sediment load remained constant.

The data collected annually during the study were used to develop a regression model. The model was determined to be an accurate predictor of annual suspended-sediment load by using annual discharge as the independent variable.