DWR Currents

June 7, 2010


Stream Gages to be Discontinued at Seven Locations Due to Reduced Funding
Fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1, 2010, marks the third consecutive year DWR has received less funding than the year before.  Budget reductions mean hard choices about which services to discontinue.  In fiscal year 2011, one of the biggest losses is stream gages funded jointly by DWR and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Stream gages are equipment used to measure the water level and flow rate in streams.  Data from stream gages are used for many important purposes, including monitoring compact compliance, administering minimum desirable streamflows set by state law, flood prediction and monitoring, drought monitoring, regulating releases from reservoirs, regulating water rights, calibrating computer models, as well as water quality and ecological issues.

Many people probably do not notice stream gages, as their only visible component is a utility box next to a stream, usually at a bridge or other convenient access point.

Right: USGS stream gage on Neosho River near Iola.  This is a “centennial” river gage, meaning data have been collected continuously at this location for more than 100 years.  (Photo courtesy of USGS Kansas Water Science Center)

Underground tubes connect equipment inside the box to water in the stream.  In the past, the equipment may have included float assemblies that marked water levels on a rotating paper chart.  Current technology typically used a pressure transducer, air compressor, data recorder, telecommunication transmitter and battery mounted inside the box.  Externally mounted equipment typically includes a rain gauge, communications antenna and solar panel.

USGS currently operates 182 real-time data stream gages in and along Kansas’ borders.  State partners in funding the gages include the Kansas Water Office and Kansas Department of Health and Environment.  In recent years, through fiscal year 2010, DWR shared costs with USGS on about a dozen stream gages.

Below: Map of Kansas showing existing stream gage locations and representative data provided by the gages.  (Image courtesy of USGS Kansas Water Science Center)  To access the map shown, visit USGS’s WaterWatch website.

With rising costs and level budgets, occasionally lower-priority stream gages were discontinued in years prior to the economic recession.  This is a long-term trend that Kansas and other states and organizations have repeatedly petitioned the federal government to address.

However, in fiscal year 2011 alone, seven stream gages formerly funded in part by DWR will be discontinued due to budget cuts stemming from reduced state revenues.  Gage locations to be discontinued include: Beaver Creek at Ludell, Amazon Great Eastern Ditch near Lakin, Southside Ditch near Lakin, Farmer’s Ditch near Deerfield, Arkansas River at Kendall, Arkansas River at Deerfield, and Walnut Creek below Cheyenne Bottoms Diversion near Great Bend.

Loss of data from the discontinued Arkansas River and ditch stream gages will have significant impacts on DWR’s ability to accurately and timely monitor flows, including releases from John Martin Reservoir in Colorado, and to apportion available flows among water users, including the several irrigation ditch companies.  Loss of data from the other discontinued stream gages will significantly impact DWR’s ability to accurately and timely monitor flows for compact compliance and regulation of water rights during times of water shortage.  Other impacts from the loss of these stream gages will include reduced ability to predict and monitor floods and droughts, to calibrate hydrologic models for accuracy, and to protect water quality and ecosystems.

Some good news is that USGS and Kansas Water Office were able to use some increased federal funding to maintain six other stream gages formerly funded in part by DWR.  The gages are at South Fork Solomon River at Woodston, Buckner Creek near Burdett, Arkansas River near Larned, Walnut Creek near Alexander, Arkansas River at Syracuse, and Spring River near Baxter Springs.

DWR is saving more than $90,000 by not funding these 13 stream gages.  This is just a fraction of the cuts the agency faces due to reduced funding in fiscal year 2011.  Other measures taken to deal with budget cuts include holding vacant positions open, eliminating most equipment purchases or upgrades, eliminating association memberships and substantially reducing travel.

It is hoped that other partners may be found to fund the seven stream gages that will otherwise be discontinued in fiscal year 2011.


Field Conference Traverses Neosho and Verdigris River Basins
The Kansas Geological Survey held its 2010 Field Conference June 2 through 4.  Participants traveled through portions of the Neosho and Verdigris river basins focusing on topics within the themes of water-energy nexus and rangeland-stream corridor management.

Chief Engineer David Barfield was one of more than 40 participants, about half of whom were state legislators.  In addition to engaging in various discussions, Barfield gave a presentation about water supplies in eastern Kansas.

Click here to view the chief engineer’s presentation.


75th Anniversary of the 1935 Republican River Flood
On May 30, 1935, in the middle of the Dust Bowl and one of the worst droughts the Great Plains has ever seen, a historic flood swept through the Republican River, creating devastation along its path.

Last week the National Weather Service announced the 75th anniversary of the 1935 Republican River flood.  The flood had profound impacts on Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, including the subsequent development of federal flood control reservoirs and the Republican River Compact of 1943.

Right: St. Francis Light & Power Plant during the flood of 1935.  (Photo courtesy of National Weather Service)

The magnitude of the flood is difficult to overstate.  According to the National Weather Service:

“During the height of the flood, the river ranged between one and four miles wide.  In large part, the river crests along the Republican have never been close to being matched.  The sheer volume of water flowing through the river in late May to early June was nearly 300 times that which normally flows through the channel.  Accurate death tolls were not kept at the time but the number of casualties from the Republican River Flood of 1935 is estimated between 110 and 113 persons.  Over 20,000 cattle were lost and over 270,000 acres of farmland were destroyed.”

More information about the flood of 1935, including detailed hydrologic records and analysis, photographs, personal accounts and more, is available on websites of the National Weather Service Topeka and Goodland offices.

More information about the Republican River Compact is available on DWR’s website.


KCC Denies Permit for Waste Disposal in Ozark Aquifer
The Kansas Corporation Commission recently issued orders upholding a decision by its staff denying a permit for an injection well to dispose of saltwater produced from oil and gas wells into the Arbuckle formation, a deep water-bearing zone, at a location within Bourbon County.  The basis for the denial is the presence of usable groundwater within the aquifer, which is groundwater having less than 10,000 parts per million of total dissolved solids and yields adequate for public water supplies, as well as risks of contaminant migration from the proposed injection site.

The denial was particularly noteworthy for several reasons:

• The proposed disposal zone is part of the Ozark aquifer in southeast Kansas that serves a number of public water supplies and has limited quantities and water quality issues in some locations.  KCC found that it was responsible for protecting the usable groundwater today even if the aquifer might not be as productive or of usable quality at some point in the future.
• The proposed well location was outside a designated “prohibited injection area.”  KCC found that the existence of a prohibited area does not compel them to issue permits outside that area if usable groundwater is present.
• KCC had previously approved an “intent to drill” at this location.  KCC found that the applicant took a “calculated business risk” in drilling the well prior to fully investigating the possible existence of usable groundwater and that approval of an “intent to drill” does not guarantee a permit.

The orders demonstrate a commitment by KCC to protect usable groundwater resources of the state.  The orders and related documents are available in Docket No. 09-CONS-139-CUIC, which can be accessed using the Docket Search function on KCC’s website.

More information about the Ozark aquifer is available on DWR’s website.


Upcoming Events

• June 8: GMD 2 Board Meeting (Halstead)
• June 10: GMD 3 Board Meeting (Garden City)
• June 10: GMD 5 Board Meeting (Stafford) - Canceled
• June 15: GMD 1 Board Meeting (Scott City)

For more information about these and other upcoming events, please check our online events listings.