Author: Christie Paul Zones

Publisher:

Published: 1961

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13:

The Quinn River Valley is a northerly trending intermontane trough about 90 miles long and from 12 to 40 miles wide. Most of it is in the northeastern part of Humboldt County, Nevada, but the northern end extends into Malheur County, Oregon. The climate is arid to semiarid. Precipitation ranges from somewhat less than 9 inches on the valley floor to more than 20 inches in the vicinity of the highest peaks. The valley is bounded on the east by the Santa Rosa Range, and on the south by unnamed hills extending westward from Winnemucca Mountain. The southern part of the western boundary is formed by the Slumbering Hills, and the northern part by the Quinn River Mountains and the White Horse Mountains. Low hills joining the Santa Rosa Range and White Horse Mountains form the northern boundary. Two major streams, McDermitt Creek and the East Branch of the Quinn River, enter the valley near its north end. These streams combine with Washburn Creek and the drainage ways from Oregon to form the Quinn River, which then flows southerly to its exit from the valley, the gap between the Slumbering Hills and the Quinn River Mountains. The mountain ranges are composed of rocks in which groundwater generally does not circulate freely. These rocks are indurated and metamorphosed sediments, igneous intrusives, and lava flows. The valley fill is composed largely of unconsolidated or poorly consolidated sediments, some of which are important aquifers. These sediments consist of clay, silt, sand, and gravel. The aquifers within the valley fill are recharged mainly by the infiltration of water from streams and from the percolation of irrigation water below the root zone. It is estimated that the annual recharge to the ground-water reservoir averages about 24,000 acre-feet. Under natural conditions ground water is discharged mainly by evaporation from the land surface and by the transpiration of phreatophytes. The phreatophytes include greasewood, salt-grass, rye grass, rabbitbrush, willows, buckbrush, and alfalfa. It is estimated that the natural discharge of ground water is about 25,000 acre-feet annually. About 5,000 acre-feet of groundwater was discharged from 18 irrigation wells in 1955. This water was in addition to the water discharged by evapotranspiration. The amount of ground water that can be developed on a perennial basis depends largely on the amount of the natural discharge that can be diverted to wells that presently is being evaporated or transpired by phreatophytes having little or no economic value. In the McDermitt area, near the northern end of the valley, this potential development amounts to about 2,000 acre-feet per year. In the Home Ranch area, in the west-central part of the valley, about 8,000 acre-feet of ground water could be salvaged annually by lowering and maintaining the water table and the capillary fringe above it below the root zone. Native vegetation having a low economic value uses about 7,000 acre-feet of water annually in the Orovada area in the east-central part of the valley. In order to salvage all this water the water table throughout that area would have to be lowered to a level below the valley floor. In the Davey Town area, the potential development is negligible. Except for being somewhat hard, all the water that was analyzed appeared to be satisfactory for stock and domestic use. Most of the water was satisfactory for irrigation also. Several samples, however, had a high salinity which would require special practices for salinity control and the selection of salt tolerant crops.