Dela Cruz, Jan Piola L.

CE141/C10

Homework 3 Hydrograph and Flow Duration Curve

The Susquehanna River Basin is the second largest - next to the Ohio River Basin - east of the
Mississippi River. The river flows from Otsego Lake in Cooperstown, NY to the Chesapeake Bay and
travels 444 miles through three different states, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The 444 miles
of the Susquehanna drain 27,500 square miles covering large parts of New York, Pennsylvania and
Maryland before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. Two separate Susquehanna River Basin watersheds
drain portions of south-central New York State: The Upper Susquehanna Watershed and the Chemung
River Watershed. It is located in the Southern Tier of New York State and is 4,520 square miles of land
area within New York State, excluding the Chemung River Watershed.

The discharge seen on the hydrograph ranges from 159-10000. It can be seen in the graph that
the beginning of the year, which is estimated to be the first 5-6 months, shows that there was a large
number of discharge. Although in the middle of that 5-6 month period it dropped somewhere on the
fourth month and rose again on the fifth month. After that period, up until before the last 2 months of
the year it showed a very low number of discharges.

Since the Susquehanna River is about 33% of river/stream miles, and 77% of lake, pond and
reservoir acres have been assessed; water quality in the Susquehanna River Watershed is generally
satisfactory. 33% of the water from the rivers contains 15% good, 14% satistfactory, and 4% poor, while
the 77% of the water from the lakes contains 2% good, 64% satisfactory, and 12% poor. The most
widespread impacts are the result of agricultural and other nonpoint sources which contribute nutrients
and sediment to the waters. Since the river contains waters from rivers and lakes and 67% and 23% of
that have not been assessed water supply personnel should be concerned if this percentage of the
water is good to be withdrawn for the towns supply. The majority of the percentage comes from the
unassessed therefore they should further look into the water quality of this given that there is already a
percentage showing some quality of the water.