Geology topics

L.E. Stullken

Publications and source records attributed to L.E. Stullken.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS1988

Summary of water data for the Janzen recharge investigation, Scott County, Kansas, 1980-86

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Western Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 1, established data collection instrumentation around an earthen dam in Scott County , west-central Kansas. The dam was placed on an ephemeral drainage to monitor water storage behind the dam, precipitation, and groundwater levels in the vicinity. This report briefly describes the site and summarizes the data collected at that site from May 1980 through September 1986, when data collection was discontinued. The dam is capable of impounding 300-acre-ft of water at the level of the emergency spillway, draining to 24 acre-ft of water at the level of the principal spillway. The reservoir behind the dam receives surface water runoff from a drainage area of about 8,000 acres. Water storage behind the dam occurred three times during the period of data collection, but water never reached the level of the principal spillway. (USGS)

Open-File Report↗

USGS1988

An experiment in representative ground-water sampling for water- quality analysis

Obtaining a sample of groundwater that accurately represents the concentration of a chemical constituent in an aquifer is an important aspect of groundwater-quality studies. Varying aquifer and constituent properties may cause chemical constituents to move within selectively separate parts of the aquifer. An experiment was conducted in an agricultural region in south-central Kansas to address questions related to representative sample collection. Concentrations of selected constituents in samples taken from observation wells completed in the upper part of the aquifer were compared to concentrations in samples taken from irrigation wells to determine if there was a significant difference. Water in all wells sampled was a calcium bicarbonate type with more than 200 mg/L hardness and about 200 mg/L alkalinity. Sodium concentrations were also quite large (about 40 mg/L). There was a significant difference in the nitrite-plus-nitrate concentrations between samples from observation and irrigation wells. The median concentration of nitrite plus nitrate in water from observation wells was 5.7 mg/L compared to 3.4 mg/L in water from irrigation wells. The differences in concentrations of calcium, magnesium, and sodium (larger in water from irrigation wells) were significant at the 78% confidence level but not at the 97% confidence level. Concentrations of the herbicide, atrazine, were less than the detection limit of 0.1 micrograms/L in all but one well. (USGS)

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗

USGS1986

Kansas ground-water observation-well network, 1985

Water level measurements are made in 1,892 selected wells in 73 counties, which currently (1985) comprise the Kansas groundwater observation-well network. These measurements are made on a continuous, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. Water level measurements have been made in observation wells since 1937 as part of a cooperative program among the Kansas Geological Survey , the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, the city of Wichita, and the U.S. Geological Survey. The objectives of the observation-well cooperative program are: (1) to provide long-term records of water level fluctuations in representative wells, (2) to facilitate the determination of possible water level trends that may indicate future availability of groundwater supplies, (3) to aid in the determination of possible changes in the base flow of streams, and (4) to provide information for use in water-resources research. This report lists for each well in the network the location, the first year of recorded water level measurement, the frequency and number of measurements, the land-surface altitude, hexagon-grid identifiers for wells in the High Plains aquifer, and the principal geologic unit(s) in which the well is completed. (USGS)

Open-File Report↗

USGS1985

Geohydrology of the High Plains Aquifer, western Kansas

The High Plains aquifer underlies 174,050 sq mi of eight states (Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming) and contains approximately 3.3 billion acre-ft of water in storage. Saturated thicknesses within the aquifer are as great as 600 ft near the southern border of southwest Kansas. The aquifer is replenished primarily by infiltration from precipitation. Average precipitation at the Garden City Experiment Station is 18.93 in/yr. Groundwater flow is generally from west to east under unconfined conditions. Hydraulic connection with subcropping consolidated aquifers allows ground water to flow vertically in minor quantities. The aquifer is depleted primarily by irrigation. Hydraulic conductivity estimates from 1,612 lithologic logs had an average value of 75 ft/day, with a standard deviation of 35 ft/day. Specific yields estimated from the same lithologic logs had a mean of 0.17 and a standard deviation of 0.047. Water from the High Plains aquifer in Kansas generally is suitable for human and animal consumption and irrigation of crops. Typically, it is a calcium bicarbonate type water, with concentrations of total dissolved solids ranging from 250 to 500 mg/L. The quality of water in the aquifer deteriorates toward the east due to mixing with recharge water containing dissolved minerals leached from the overlying soil and unsaturated zones and mineralized water from adjacent bedrock units. The simulated water budget for the steady state model of predevelopment (pre-1950) conditions in the High Plains aquifer in northwest Kansas showed that annual recharge to the aquifer from infiltration of precipitation was 87,000 acre-ft/yr and from boundary inflow, 21,000 acre-ft/yr. Annual discharge from the aquifer was 108,000 acre-ft/yr, including 81,000 acre-ft/yr from leakage to streams, 23,000 acre-ft from outflow at the boundaries of the aquifer, and 4,000 acre-ft from municipal and industrial pumpage. (Lantz-PTT)

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗

USGS1985

Projected ground-water development, ground-water levels, and stream-aquifer leakage in the South Fork Solomon River Valley between Webster Reservoir and Waconda Lake, north-central Kansas, 1979-2020

A two-dimensional finite difference computer model was used to project changes in the potentiometric surface, saturated thickness, and stream aquifer leakage in an alluvial aquifer resulting from four instances of projected groundwater development. The alluvial aquifer occurs in the South Fork Solomon River valley between Webster Reservoir and Waconda Lake in north-central Kansas. In the first two projections, pumpage for irrigation was held constant at 1978 rates throughout the projection period (1979-2020). In the second two projections, the 1978 pumpage was progressively increased each yr through 2020. In the second and fourth projections, surface water diversions in the Osborne Irrigation Canal were decreased by 50 %. For the third and fourth projections, each grid-block in the modeled area was classified initially as one of six types according to whether it represented irrigable or nonirrigable land, to its saturated thickness, to its location inside or outside the canal-river area, and to its pumping rate. The projected base-flow rates (leakage from the aquifer to the river) were lower during the irrigation season (June, July, and August) than during the other months of the yr because of the decline in hydraulic head produced by groundwater pumpage. Stream depletion, calculated as a decrease below the average (1970-78) estimated winter base-flow rate of 16.5 cu ft/sec, varied inversely with base flow. For the first two projections, a constant annual cycle of well pumpage and recharge was used throughout the projection period. Aquifer leakage to the river was nearly constant by the mid-to-late 1990's, implying that flow conditions had attained a stabilized annual cycle. The third and fourth projections never attained an annual stabilized cycle because the irrigation pumpage rate was increased each year. By the early 1980's, the hydraulic head had fallen below river stage, reversing the hydraulic gradient at the stream-aquifer interface and resulting in net leakage from the river to the aquifer during the summer months. By the early 1990 's, the projected potentiometric surface of the aquifer was lower than the river stage even during the winter and spring months. (Author 's abstract)

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗