Publications

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, maintains a long-term network of hydrologic monitoring sites in Kansas. In 2015, the network included about 200 real-time streamgages (hereafter referred to as “gages”), 12 real-time reservoir-level monitoring stations, and 30 groundwater-level monitoring wells. These data and associated analyses...

This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Water Resources, presents derivative statistics of 2013 irrigation water use in Kansas. The published regional and county-level statistics from the previous 4 years (2009–12) are shown with the 2013 statistics and are used to calculate a 5-year average. An overall...

Digital flood-inundation maps for a 12.5-mile reach of the Big Papillion Creek from 0.6 mile upstream from the State Street Bridge to the 72nd Street Bridge in Omaha, Nebraska, were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping...

The Niobrara River is an important and valuable economic and ecological resource in northern Nebraska that supports ecotourism, recreational boating, wildlife, fisheries, agriculture, and hydroelectric power. Because of its uniquely rich resources, a 122-kilometer reach of the Niobrara River was designated as a National Scenic River in 1991, which has been jointly managed by the U.S...

Bioretention gardens are used to help mitigate stormwater runoff in urban settings in an attempt to restore the hydrologic response of the developed land to a natural predevelopment response in which more water is infiltrated rather than routed directly to urban drainage networks. To better understand the performance of bioretention gardens in facilitating infiltration of stormwater in...

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, monitored suspended sediment within constructed Missouri River chutes during March through October 2012. Chutes were constructed at selected river bends by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help mitigate aquatic habitat lost through the creation and maintenance of the navigation channel on the Missouri...

Recent studies have shown that the total nitrogen to total phosphorus (TN:TP) ratio and nitrogen oxidation state may have substantial effects on secondary metabolite (e.g., microcystins) production in cyanobacteria. We investigated the relationship between the water column TN:TP ratio and the cyanobacterial secondary metabolites geosmin, 2-methylisoborneol (MIB), and microcystin using...

Polyoxyethylene tallow amine (POEA) is an inert ingredient added to formulations of glyphosate, the most widely applied agricultural herbicide. POEA has been shown to have toxic effects to some aquatic organisms making the potential transport of POEA from the application site into the environment an important concern. This study characterized the adsorption of POEA to soils and assessed...

Effective management of water resources requires accurate information on the mass, or load of water-quality constituents transported from upstream watersheds to downstream receiving waters. Despite this need, no single method has been shown to consistently provide accurate load estimates among different water-quality constituents, sampling sites, and sampling regimes. We evaluate the...

Cyanobacteria are a genetically diverse group of photosynthetic microorganisms that occupy a broad range of habitats on land and water all over the world. They release toxins that can cause lung and skin irritation, alter the taste and odor of potable water, and cause human and animal illness. Cyanobacteria blooms occur worldwide, and climate change may increase the frequency, duration...

This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources, presents derivative statistics of water used by Kansas public-supply systems in 2013. The published statistics from the previous 4 years (2009–12) are also shown with the 2013 statistics and are used to calculate a 5-year average. An overall Kansas...

Extreme flooding in the Missouri River in 2011, followed by a year of more typical streamflows in 2012, allowed the sediment-transport regime to be compared between the unprecedented conditions of 2011 and the year immediately following the flooding. As part of a cooperative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, this report follows up U.S...