Seepage measurements made during the fall of 1978 at 21 sites in the Big Blue River basin and at 35 sites in the Little Blue River basin were used to determine stream gains or losses in 20 drainage areas in the Big Blue River basin and 31 drainage areas in the Little Blue River basin. Analyses of data from these seepage measurements and of available hydrogeologic data indicate that the most significant ground-water contributions to streamflow in the Big Blue and Little Blue River drainage basins in Gage and Jefferson Counties, Nebr., occur where a direct hydraulic connection exists between a stream and buried coarse-grained deposits of Quaternary age. These deposits occur in two buried bedrock valleys that trend east-northeasterly across the area.
The largest ground-water contributions to streamflow in the Big Blue River occur in the reaches of the river between the mouth of Mud Creek and the dam at Blue Springs (about 13 cubic feet per second) and between the mouth of Turkey Creek and the Beatrice gaging station (about 22 cubic feet per second). Ground-water contributions to streamflow also occur in two tributaries of the Big Blue River: Bear Creek (4.39 cubic feet per second) and Big Indian Creek (6.23 cubic feet per second). In the Little Blue River basin the largest contributions to streamflow occur between the mouths of Big Sandy and Little Sandy Creeks (about 6.5 cubic feet per second) and in the vicinity of Fairbury (about 16 cubic feet per second). A ground-water contribution to streamflow of about 6.5 cubic feet per second also occurs in Rose Creek, a tributary of the Little Blue River.