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December 14, 2009

Upcoming Events

December 15: Chief Engineer at Ozark Aquifer public meeting, Columbus
December 15: GMD 1 board meeting, Scott City
December 15: GMD 2 board meeting, Halstead
December 17: Chief Engineer at GMD 4 board meeting, Colby

For more information about these and other upcoming events, please check our events listings at www.ksda.gov/dwr/events.

Ozark Aquifer Meeting

Results of several years’ study of the Ozark and Springfield Plateau aquifers will be discussed at a second informational meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 15, in Columbus.

The meeting will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the ground floor conference room of the Cherokee County Courthouse at 110 West Maple.  The meeting will be hosted by the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s division of water resources and the Kansas Water Office.

David Barfield, chief engineer of the division of water resources, will lead the meeting, which will include a discussion of two water quality reports.  The first, Quality Characteristics of Ground Water in the Ozark Aquifer, was published by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2009.  The second, Pumping-Induced Water Quality Changes in the Ozark Plateaus Aquifer System, will be published soon by the Kansas Geological Survey.

The meeting will focus on what the two reports say about groundwater quality in the area.

If severe weather makes travel hazardous on Dec. 15, the meeting will be postponed to a later date.  Attendees are encouraged to check the Kansas Water Office website at www.kwo.org the day of the meeting to confirm it will take place as scheduled.

Arkansas River Compact Meeting

The Kansas-Colorado Arkansas River Compact Administration had its annual meeting Dec. 7 and 8 in Garden City.

Federal commissioner Robin Jennison of Healy, Kansas, chaired the meeting.  The states were represented by three commissioners each.  Kansas’ commissioners to this compact are Chief Engineer David Barfield, David Brenn of Garden City, and Randy Hayzlett of Lakin.

The compact was negotiated in 1948 between Kansas and Colorado with participation by the federal government.  Its stated purposes are to settle existing disputes and remove causes of future controversy between Colorado and Kansas concerning the waters of the Arkansas River, and to equitably divide and apportion between Colorado and Kansas the waters of the Arkansas River, as well as the benefits arising from John Martin Reservoir.

The annual meeting is for member states to discuss and exchange information, for several compact committees to conduct work, and for the administration to receive reports from federal and local agencies.

Specific topics addressed at this year’s meeting included:

  • Status report on Kansas v. Colorado. The litigation concluded earlier this year, but some remaining and emerging issues need to be resolved
  • 1980 operating plan for John Martin Reservoir.  The states agreed to a schedule to update this plan.
  • Tamarisk (salt cedar) control.  There are 78,000 acres of tamarisk in the Arkansas River basin in both states and more than 30 control projects under way using different control methods.
  • Water quality issues.  Salinity and selenium are the primary concerns.

More information about this compact is available on our website at www.ksda.gov/interstate_water_issues under “Kansas-Colorado Arkansas River Compact.”

Web Updates

DWR is always improving its website to provide timely and useful information on water resource issues.  Here’s a summary of recently added features and content: 

  • Dedicated web page for this DWR Currents newsletter.  Now you can find the latest issue and previous issues all on one convenient page at www.ksda.gov/dwrcurrents.
  • New normal precipitation maps.  Using 1971-2000 precipitation data supplied by the state climatologist’s office, the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s GIS specialist prepared a series of maps illustrating average annual precipitation across Kansas with intervals ranging from 1 inch to 4 inches.  Click on “Maps” in the side menu on our homepage at www.ksda.gov/dwr.
  • Improved events listing.  Upcoming events open to the public are listed on DWR’s homepage at www.ksda.gov/dwr/events.

Convenient links to new content are provided in the “News” area on DWR’s homepage at www.ksda.gov/dwr.