Table Rock Lake Modeling Project

Corps of Engineers Table Rock Lake map

Ed Wesolowski, South Dakota District, Project Chief
Joseph M. Richards, Missouri District Contact

Concern over the sustainability of the economically and recreationally important trout fisheries in the tailwaters of Table Rock Lake (in Missouri and Arkansas) has reservoir operators and natural resource managers working together to maintain tailwater qualities that will support the fishery. Fisheries managers are unsure whether sufficient volumes of cold, oxygenated water needed to maintain the desired thermal and dissolved oxygen qualities in the tailwater releases exist in the upstream reservoir. Comprehensive information is needed to address thermal and dissolved oxygen dynamics of this reservoir and its downstream discharge. The U.S. Geological Survey is conducting a reservoir simulation of hydro-, thermal, and dissolved oxygen dynamics for Table Rock Lake.

Approach:

A numerical model of hydro-, thermal, and dissolved oxygen dynamics for Table Rock Lake will be conducted using the CE-QUAL-W2 software program developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Bathymetry data for the lake will be digitized and the model grid will be generated. The model will be calibrated based on data collected in previous studies by the Missouri Department of Conservation, the University of Missouri, USGS, and other federal agencies. After calibration, several reservoir simulations will be conducted under natural/operational influenced worst-case, best case, and intermediate case conditions. The simulations will determine what minimum flows might result in water-quality conditions above the dam to deteriorate to the point that reservoir and tailwater fisheries are impaired.

Objectives:

Provide water resources and natural resources management personnel with comprehensive information to evaluate thermal and dissolved oxygen qualities of proposed minimum flow releases from Table Rock Lake.
Provide information that will allow the prediction of the effects of the proposed minimum flow releases upon the limnology (and thus the fisheries) within the lakes.

Cooperators:

The Table Rock Lake modeling project is jointly funded through a cooperative agreement between the Missouri Department of Conservation and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Contact address:

Joseph M. Richards, Hydrologist
U.S. Geological Survey
1400 Independence Rd, Mail Stop 100
Rolla, MO 65401
PHONE: 573-308-3568
FAX: 573-308-3645
EMAIL: richards@usgs.gov

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer: Rita Choate, Webmaster
Updated: September 25, 2003
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URL: http://mo.water.usgs.gov/current_studies/richards/tablerock/tablerock.htm