Publications

Indian Creek is one of the most urban drainage basins in Johnson County, Kansas, and environmental and biological conditions of the creek are affected by contaminants from point and other urban sources. The Johnson County Douglas L. Smith Middle Basin (hereafter referred to as the “Middle Basin”) and Tomahawk Creek Wastewater Treatment Facilities (WWTFs) discharge to Indian Creek. In...

A quality-assurance plan for use in conducting continuous water-quality monitoring activities has been developed for the Kansas Water Science Center in accordance with guidelines set forth by the U.S. Geological Survey. This quality-assurance plan documents the standards, policies, and procedures used by the U.S. Geological Survey in Kansas for activities related to the collection...

Johnson County is the fastest growing county in Kansas, with a population of about 560,000 people in 2012. Urban growth and development can have substantial effects on water quality, and streams in Johnson County are affected by nonpoint-source pollutants from stormwater runoff and point-source discharges such as municipal wastewater effluent. Understanding of current (2014) water...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Kansas Water Science Center (KSWSC), in cooperation with local, State, and other Federal agencies, maintains a long-term network of hydrologic monitoring gages in the State of Kansas. These include 195 real-time streamflow-gaging stations (herein gages) and 12 real-time reservoir-level monitoring stations. These data and associated analysis, accumulated...

The Equus Beds aquifer in south-central Kansas is a primary water-supply source for the city of Wichita. Water-level declines because of groundwater pumping for municipal and irrigation needs as well as sporadic drought conditions have caused concern about the adequacy of the Equus Beds aquifer as a future water supply for Wichita. In March 2006, the city of Wichita began construction of...

In 2011, unprecedented flooding in the Missouri River prompted transportation agencies to increase the frequency of monitoring riverbed elevations near bridges that cross the Missouri River. Hydrographic surveys were completed in cooperation with the Nebraska Department of Roads, using a multibeam echosounder at 15 highway bridges spanning the Missouri River from Niobrara to Rulo...

The Missouri River and its tributaries are an important resource that serve multiple uses including agriculture, energy, recreation, and municipal water supply. Understanding historical streamflow characteristics provides relevant guidance to adaptive management of these water resources. Streamflow records in the Missouri River watershed were examined for trends in time series of annual...

Recently (2004) adopted legislation in Nebraska requires a sustainable balance between long-term supplies and uses of surface-water and groundwater and requires Natural Resources Districts to understand the effect of groundwater use on surface-water systems when developing a groundwater-management plan. The South Platte Natural Resources District (SPNRD) is located in the southern...

As the Nation’s principle earth-science information agency, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is depended on to collect data of the highest quality. This document is a quality-assurance plan for groundwater activities (GWQAP) of the Kansas Water Science Center. The purpose of this GWQAP is to establish a minimum set of guidelines and practices to be used by the Kansas Water Science...

A statistically significant association was found between the concentration of total microcystin, a common class of cyanotoxins, in surface waters of lakes and reservoirs in the continental U.S. with watershed land use using data from 1156 water bodies sampled between May and October 2007 as part of the USEPA National Lakes Assessment. Nearly two thirds (65.8%) of the samples with...

Water and sediment samples were collected from June through October 2007 from seven plots at the Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Upper Deerfield, New Jersey, and analyzed for a suite of pesticides (including fungicides) and other physical and chemical parameters (including sediment mineralogy) by the U.S. Geological Survey. Plots were selected for inclusion in this...

The maps and graphs in this summary describe streamflow conditions for water year 2013 (October 1, 2012, to September 30, 2013) in the context of the 84-year period from 1930 through 2013, unless otherwise noted. The illustrations are based on observed data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) National Water Information System ( http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/). The period 1930–2013...