Will Measure Western Kansas Groundwater
A crew fiom the Kansas Geo-
logical Survey, based at the Uni-
versity of Kansas, will be in
western Kansas in early Janu-
ary to measure groundwater
levels in hundreds of wells. The
work is part of an annual pro-
gram with the Kansas Depart-
6/" 219177108
To all our friends and clients.
We appreciate your business.
ment of Agriculture’s Division
of Water Resources (KDA—
DWR) to determine if or how
quickly groundwater is being
depleted in different parts of
western and central Kansas.
The KGS crew will be near
Colby and Atwood on Jan. 2,
Rathbun Law Office
215 E. Main
Bluff Cree
Mary Eubank
582-21 1 5
Coldwater
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k Kitchen
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Seasons Greetings to
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hope for peace and
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the Holidays!
Bar Six Manufacutring
Dirt Construction, Inc.
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Protection
622-4279
2016, Goodland and St. Francis
on Jan. 3, Tribune, Syracuse and
Ulysses on Jan. 4, Elkhart and
Liberal on Jan. 5, and Meade and
Dodge City on Jan. 6, weather
permitting. Most of the 568 wells
on the KGS’s list have been mea—
sured for years, some since the
1960s. Nine new ones have been
added to fill in spatial gaps in
the network of wells.
“The KGS gets permission
from the landowner before moni-
toring a new well,6 said Brett
Wedel, manager of the KGS wa-
ter-level-data acquisition.
Of the 1,401 wells to be mea-
sured in 48 counties by the KGS
and KDA-DWR, 90 per cent
draw water from the High Plains
aquifer, a massive network of
underground water-bearing
rocks that underlies parts of
eight states and includes the ex-
tensive Ogallala aquifer. It is the
primary source of irrigation, mu—
nicipal and industrial water for
much of western and central
Kansas.
The remaining 10 per cent of
the wells are drilled into the Da—
kota aquifer and other deeper
systems or shallow alluvial aqui-
fers along creeks and rivers.
Besides underlying much of
western Kansas, the High Plains
aquifer encompasses the Great
Bend Prairie aquifer in west-cen—
tral Kansas and the Equus Beds
aquifer north and west of
Wichita. KDA-DWR field of-
fices will measure 833 wells in
those central Kansas areas and
parts of western Kansas. Of
those, the Stockton field office
will measure 224, the Garden City
field office will measure 246, and
the Stafford field office will mea-
sure 363.
Wells are measured in De-
cember, January and February to
avoid short-term declines
caused by pumping for irrigation
during the previous growing
season.
The majority of wells moni-
tored by KGS and DWR are
within the boundaries of the
state’s five Groundwater Man—
agement Districts, which are or-
ganized and governed by area
landowners and large-scale wa~
ter users to address water-re-
source issues.
Water levels in the 1,400—well
network as a whole declined an
average of 0.87 feet during 2014.
The average decline was 0.9 feet
in 2013, 2.7 feetin2012, 2.8 feet
in2011 and 1.18 feetin2010.
“I anticipate the overall aver-
age water level will decline less
this year because, although
much of the state was exception-
ally dry in early March, we re—
ceived drought-busting rains
during the growing season,” said
Brownie Wilson, KGS water—data
manager. “This was especially
true in southwest Kansas.”
Southwest Kansas showed
the greatest declines during
2014, with average levels falling
1.92 feet. In the three previous
years, levels there had declined
between 2.3 and 3.7 feet annu-
ally.
“Timely rains occurred
throughout May 2015 and in
many places again in July and
August,” Wilson said. “With the
reduced groundwater demands
across much of western Kansas,
the overall rate of water-level
decline should improve from
what we’ve seen over the last
three to four years.”
The slowing decline the KGS
expects to see from its measure-
ments in January, however,
would be due much more to de-
creased pumping than to in—
creased recharge of the aquifer.
The amount of water taken
out for irrigation and other uses
rather the amount going in has
the greatest influence on water-
level changes from one year to
the next, Wilson said. Even
record-setting annual precipita—
tion would add only a small frac-
tion of an inch, particularly in the
Ogallala aquifer.
.fli\§\§ I
mas
And hope that you and your family enjoy an
old-fashioned Christmas — one full of fun and excitement,
while still remembering the reason
we celebrate this blessed holiday.
From Candy, Donna, Sheryl, Becky, Sherry, & Chad
THE BANK or
nggrccrron
8 9
Protection Insurance Agency
302 N. Broadway
622-4224
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