News Release

December 10, 2009

Contact:
Chelsea Good
Communications Director
Kansas Department of Agriculture
(785) 296-2653 phone
(913) 735-9065 cell
Chelsea.Good@kda.ks.gov

Current status of southeast Kansas aquifers topic of December 15 meeting

TOPEKA— 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.