Sediment and water discharge of the Colorado River at Matagorda, Texas: May 4-7, and June 7-11, 1979

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested the U.S. Geological Survey to collect data on the Colorado River at Matagorda, Texas , to determine the total sediment discharge into Matagorda Bay if all the water from the Colorado River were diverted into the bay. Data were collected from two floods (May 4-7, and June 7-11 , 1979) with peak discharges of 24,900 cubic feet per second and 40,900 cubic feet per second. The total suspended-sediment discharge from the first flood was approximately 201,000 tons, and the total suspended-sediment discharge from the second flood was 630,000 tons. The volume of sediment from these two floods was approximately 970 acre-feet with approximately 20 acre-feet of this total being the bed load. (USGS)