Surface Water
The Upper Solomon subbasin has three United States Geological Survey (USGS) streamflow gages. The Upper North Fork has a gage at Glade. It has been in operation since October 1, 1952. The Stockton gage is on Bow Creek which is a tributary to the North Fork Solomon River. It has been in service since November 20, 1950. The third gage is above Webster Reservoir on the Upper South Fork. It has been in operation the longest, beginning January 8, 1945.
Surface water in the Lower Fork sections is monitored by two USGS gages at Portis and Osborne. The Portis gage is on the Lower North Fork while the Osborne gage is on the Lower South Fork. Portis has a longer period of record dating back to 1945. Osborne gage began shortly after Portis in 1946. Since both streamflow gages are downstream from reservoirs, the operations of Kirwin and Webster Reservoirs affect the streamflow.
The mainstem subbasin has three streamflow gages monitored by the USGS. The first is below Glen Elder Reservoir, another downstream at Niles and the final gage is on the Salt Creek at Ada. The streamflow gage at Niles is the only gage with Minimum Desirable Streamflow (MDS) associated with it.
Upper Solomon
The average streamflow for Glade was 25.05 cfs, Stockton was 12.68 cfs and Webster was 49.02 cfs.
Lower Solomon
The average streamflow was 115.3 cfs at Portis and 104.6 cfs at Osborne.
Mainstem Solomon
The average streamflow at Niles was 539.13 cfs, at Ada was 64.26 cfs and at Glen Elder 218.87 cfs.
In 1984, the Kansas Legislature amended the Kansas Water Appropriation Act to establish Minimum Desirable Streamflow (MDS) for specific USGS streamflow gages. Administration of MDS begins after seven consecutive days of streamflow below the MDS mark and continues until the streamflow meets MDS for 14 consecutive days. The table shows MDS by month for the Niles streamflow gage on the Solomon River.
Gage | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Niles | 40 | 50 | 60 | 60 | 90 | 90 | 50 | 50 | 40 | 40 | 40 | 40 |
