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University Daily Kansan
Friday. Nov. 5. 1954
But Not a Drop to Drink—
State Water Supply Is Vast
By TED BLANKENSHIP
Ironically, while drought-stricken farmers call for "water, more water . . . ," many Kansans are literally "sitting' on vast reserves of the precious liquid.
This water is in open spaces in underground rocks and is called ground water. It is drawn out by wells, or in the case of artesian water, sometimes flows from the top of wells.
At no place are ground-water supplies unlimited, but coupled with surface water and other supplies properly distributed, ground water can adequately supply Kansas.
Water is of great importance to scientific agriculture, industry, and the general economic welfare of Kansas. Water is vital as a raw material because it enters into the manufacture of many products of which the water used does not actually become a basic part.
It takes as much as 20 gallons of water to make a gallon of gasoline, 500 gallons for a ton of soap, 160 gallons to can a case of peas, and 75 gallons to can a case of corn.
An average of 350 million gallons of ground water a day is being used in Kansas by municipalities, industries, and agriculture.
Compared with a population increase of about 600 percent for the past century, national water consumption has increased several thousand percent. Projected through the next century, the trend toward still greater water consumption undoubtedly will result in an even more marked per capita increase.
According to a 1952 bulletin of the State Geological survey, the total daily consumption of ground water in the Kansas River valley area between Topeka and Lawrence is 12,-850,000 gallons per day. This figure includes industrial, municipal, State hospital (Topeka), rural use (estimated), irrigation, and air conditioning in churches, homes, and stores.
In order to keep up with the growing demand for additional water supplies, Kansans have been drilling more and more water wells. There are more than 300 water-well drillers
and drilling companies in Kansas, not including oil and gas drilling firms.
Although more wells may relieve the situation in some localities, it is not a solution to the over-all water problem. The most efficient method for attacking the problem is through an integrated program of research to obtain and provide adequate geologic facts about water resources. Careful detailed appraisal of our water resources will assist in solving our present water-supply problems and will provide a basis for the prevention of future problems of increased magnitude.
To achieve this end, studies were begun in 1937 as a joint project of the Federal and State Geological surveys, in cooperation with the Divisions of Sanitation and Water Resources of the State Boards of Health and Agriculture.
Since 1937 more than 40 reports on all or parts of 60 counties have been published by the State Geological survey, and 16 reports covering all or parts of as many counties are now in various stages of preparation.
The survey's accumulation of data on the state's water sources and supplies has been invaluable in practical application, whether in the search for new supplies of water or in planning of dams to catch water when the rains come again.
Results show in the larger number of farm and ranch ponds that have been added to many farms. The demand for running water in farm homes has brought the tapping of more dependable supplies of ground water. The increases in populations and prosperity of smaller cities have made it possible to have municipal water systems in places that otherwise would be depending on cisterns and a few shallow wells.
This summer, in an attempt to make the development of water supplies in Kansas as co-ordinated as possible with known facts on the state's water resources, the State Finance council created the Kansas Water Resources Fact-finding and Research committee.
Members are Dr. Frank C. Foley, director of the State Geological survey, chairman; Dwight F. Metzler, director of the Division of Sanitation of the State Board of Health, and Robert V. Smrha, chief engineer of the Division of Water Resources of the State Board of Agriculture.
This committee works through a staff of which Russell Culp of the State Board of Health is technical secretary.
Discussing the scope and aims of the committee, Dr. Foley said, "The committee is attempting to determine all phases of the present uses of water in the state. The committee is reviewing all the programs of water resources sturdy and development, which include agricultural, industrial, municipal, and domestic water supplies, by the 17 state and federal agencies concerned with water resources in the state.
The committee will prepare a report to the 1955 Kansas legislature, and will make recommendations for the development of a co-ordinated plan which the state can follow to achieve as nearly complete as possible conservation and development of its water resources.
There is speculation that the emergency survey might lead to asking the 1955 legislature for a long-range, two-to-four-year study of Kansas water problems and resources.
The estimated cost would be about a quarter million dollars annually. In terms of the money lost because of the present drought, the cost for a long-range study can easily be justified.
Historic Island
Mackinac Island, Mich. — (U.P.) Historians of this famed northern Michigan resort island say that the final act of the Revolutionary War and first battle of the War of 1812 occurred here. Mackinac Island was the last possession surrendered to the United States by the British under the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and was the first to be recaptured by the British in 1812.
Wellesley, Mass. —(U.P.)— Wellesley College is giving financial aid totaling $317,355 to 349 students.
Executive Secretary Margaret E Bowman said about 25 per cent of the college's students received some form of financial aid throughout the years. This year's aid will reach about 21 per cent of the student body.
Wellesley Aid
Seagull Menace
New Haven, Corn. — (U.P.)—James Coogan, park director, complained about sea gulls messing up the city golf course. The birds got mixed up in a large oil slick left by tankers in Long Island Sound. It prevented them from fishing, so they went to the golf course for worms. They wiped the oil on the carpet-like greens.
Enjoy the Game
and that
After-Game Get-Together
with our
Carmel Corn
Cinnamon Corn
Cheese Corn
Salted-in-the-shell peanuts, Fresh Roasted Nuts, Homemade Candy Candied Apples
Dixie's CARMEL CORN SHOP
842 Mass.
OPEN TILL 11 P. M.
Phone 1330
Two Things to Cheer About
Homecoming
and those
Big, Beautiful 1955 FORDS
Coming November 12
Morgan-Mack
714 Vermont Phone 3500 Your Ford Dealer in Lawrence
FORD