CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 17, 1996
5A
KU finishes study on aquifer
Findings expose water concerns
By Andrea Albright Kansan staff writer
An eight-year study of the Dakota aquifer, conducted by the Kansas Geological Survey was finished on June 30. Allen Macfarlane, assistant scientist who completed the survey, will publish the findings and recommendations to water conservation agencies by July 1997.
Macfarlane said the purpose of the investigation was to be able to deliver an assessment to water agencies as to whether or not the Dakota aquifer will ever replace the Ogallala aquifer as the dominant source of water in western Kansas.
"It probably will not", he said.
An aquifer is an underground layer of earth, gravel, or porous stone that yields water. Groundwater systems, including aquifers, supply water to wells and springs that can be used for domestic and agricultural use.
Since the late 1960s, groundwater systems have been the predominant
source of water in western Kansas. The Ogallala aquifer, located just under the ground surface in the western one-third of Kansas, has been extensively developed for farm irrigation. In some regions, the Ogallala has been depleted to 75 percent of its original saturation level. Developers are looking at the Dakota aquifer as a supplement or replacement for the Ogallala as its resources become scarce.
The Dakota covers 40,000 square miles under Kansas and is present in 59 out of 105 counties. The Dakota extends from Canada down to Oklahoma.
However, the study showed that the Dakota is only 30 percent sandstone. The remaining 70 percent is shale and other impermeable rock, making those areas poor sources of water.
"It's on the order of teaspoonfuls per square mile, essentially an insignificant amount of water," Macfarlane said.
The Dakota aquifer is highly variable; the water content of the rock is not consistent. In the 1980s, planners and developers had very little information to develop policies to control groundwater usage that were appropriate to specific situations.
Until this study, the aquifer had been mapped, but was not understood.
"You could drill a well here and get thousands of gallons of water a minute and you could drill a well a hundred feet away and get nothing," Macfarlane said. "It's very much like looking for oil."
In areas where there has been marked depletion in the Dakota, the fresh water has been removed, no longer filtering out minerals and salt in the aquifer. The study shows that a vast amount of the Dakota cannot be used without advanced treatment technology to remove salt and minerals that are produced by underlying salt beds.
"If you take the head off of the deeper aquifers, you allow the poorer quality water to come back to the surface," Macfarlane said. "It reduces the quality of the aquifer for irrigation."
Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey suggest that the more mineralized water of the Dakota could be mixed with or substituted for the Ogallala water for many industrial uses, conserving the fresh water for domestic and agricultural use.
Ray Pierotti, associate director of
environmental studies, said water shortages in western Kansas had changed the face of western Kansas, and the depth of the Dakota makes pumping the water cost prohibitive.
"You've got huge areas of devastated landscape that can't be cultivated because the ground water is gone," Pierotti said.
Jerry Hargadine, Kansas water resources planner, said the Dakota could be used in some areas where the Ogallala has been depleted, but in many areas the Dakota is too far underground to make the pumping cost reasonable.
"It'll supplement in the fringe areas where the Ogallala and the Dakota are near each other," Hargadine said. "But in the north and northwest, you can't use an ordinary pump. It's more like drilling for oil."
Macfarlane's study will be used by the five water management districts of Kansas to control water development in on the Dakota and Ogallala aquifers.
The Division of Water Resources is using the information to establish policies to restrict groundwater usage, and regulate well placement on the Dakota to avoid depletion like that of the Ogallala.
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