Surface Water

The Upper Solomon subbasin has three  United States Geological Survey 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. Bow Creek 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 is monitored by three United States Geological Survey gages. They are located at Woodston, Portis and Osborne. The Portis gage is on the Lower North Fork. The Osborne gage and Woodston gage are on the Lower South Fork. Portis has a longer period of record dating back to 1945. Osborne gage began shortly after Portis in 1946. The USGS began monitoring at Woodston in 1979.  Since all of the 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 United States Geological Survey. One is below Glen Elder Reservoir. Another is downstream at Niles. The final gage is on Salt Creek at Ada. The streamflow gage at Niles is the only gage with Minimum Desirable Streamflow associated with it.

Upper Solomon

Over the period of record, the average streamflow for Glade was 25.4 cfs. It was 14.7 cfs at Stockton. Webster was 53.5 cfs.

Lower Solomon

The average streamflow was 116.1 cfs at Portis. It was 104.4 cfs at Osborne.  Finally, the Woodston gage averaged 41.9 cfs.

Mainstem Solomon

The average streamflow at Niles was 538.6 cfs, at Ada was 63.9 cfs and at Glen Elder 219.3 cfs.

In 1984, the Kansas Legislature amended the Kansas Water Appropriation Act. It established Minimum Desirable Streamflow for specific United States Geological Survey streamflow gages. Administration of Minimum Desirable Streamflow begins after seven straight days of streamflow below the defined value. It continues until the streamflow meets Minimum Desirable Streamflow for 14 straight days. The table shows Minimum Desirable Streamflow by month for the Niles streamflow gage on the Solomon River.

Baseflow

Starting in 2001 and ending in 2009, Division of Water Resources’ Stockton Field office staff measured 34 sites in the Upper and Lower subbasins. There were 20 sites in the Upper including Bow Creek, and 15 sites in the Lower. Staff measured on a monthly or quarterly basis. The objective was to record baseflow. Baseflow is the amount of natural flow in the stream under static conditions. Precipitation events can greatly influence streamflow. They can skew measurements and result in an inaccurate reflection of steady-state conditions.

There are two U.S. Geological Survey gages installed on the Upper Solomon Subbasin. USGS also has three gages on the Lower Solomon Subbasin. Of the Upper Solomon gages, one is in western Rooks County on the Upper South Fork above Webster Reservoir. The other one is in south central Phillips County above Kirwin Reservoir. The Lower Solomon gages are found at the town of Portis on the Lower North Fork and the two on the Lower South Fork are found at the towns of Woodston and Osborne. USGS data from the all these gages can be viewed on the  USGS website. The site also includes historic and real-time data from streamflow gage stations throughout the state.

The maps show gaining, losing, dry and undetermined stretches between gage sites for the total period each site was measured. Staff measured the Upper North and South Forks from August 2001 to July 2009.  Measurements began at the same time for Bow Creek but ended in February 2005.  Staff began measuring the Lower North and South Forks in December 2006 and stopped in July 2009.  Blue stream segments represent a gaining stream stretch. Brown is a dry stretch and red is a losing stretch.  Green represents an undetermined stretch, which means the stretch had an equal number of times that were either gaining, losing, or dry. 

Baseflow at each site is calculated in cubic feet per second. Each stream stretch is first evaluated based on the difference in discharge between each gage site. This serves as a simple indicator as to which stream segments are gaining and losing stream stretches during a specific month. When two consecutive sites have no flow, it is considered a dry stretch because there are no discharge numbers to compare. Staff calculated the frequency of gaining, losing and dry stretches for all the measurements. This determines whether each stretch is considered to be gaining, losing or dry for the year. If the stretch was gaining 50 percent of the time, losing 25 percent of the time and dry 25 percent of the time, it would be shown as blue on the map because it was most frequently a gaining stretch.

When a stretch is shown as losing or dry, it does not imply that the stream never flows at the measurement site. The tables for the Upper Solomon, Lower Solomon, and Bow Creek show all discharge measurements on record.    

When looking at the tables, keep in mind some sites may not have been measured during the cold winter months due to ice. When ice prevented measurements, it was denoted in the table and was not considered a dry, gaining or losing stretch.

Staff measured the Upper North and South Fork subbasins on a monthly time scale. There were 68 measurements on the South Fork and 70 measurements on the North Fork during the eight-year span. The upper three stretches on the South Fork were dry at least 50 percent of the time. The lower five stretches were all gaining at least 45 percent of the total measurements. The North Fork was a gaining stream through the fifth measurement site. The last stretch is undetermined. It was gaining and dry 37 percent of the time. The remaining 26 percent was either losing or not measurable.

Bow Creek is a tributary to the Upper North Fork. Measurements were also monthly but stopped on Bow Creek in February 2005. Bow Creek had 37 measurements. It had a similar trend to Upper North Fork. The upper stretches were gaining. The last stretch was also undetermined. Both gain and loss had 17 occurrences.

Staff also measured the Lower North and South Fork subbasins on a monthly time scale from December 2006 to July 2009. There were 20 measurements. Operations of Kirwin and Webster Reservoirs affect the Lower Solomon subbasins. The Lower North Fork stretches were all gaining at least 70 percent of the time. Six of the seven stretches on the Lower South Fork were gaining. The sixth stretch downstream of the Osborne USGS streamflow gage was losing fifteen of the twenty measurements.

The Upper and Lower Solomon subbasins have more gaining stretches compared to dry, losing or undetermined stretches.