Assessment of selected water-quality and biological data collected in the Wichita River basin, Texas, 1996-97

The Wichita River Basin in northwest Texas (fig. 1) covers about 3,440 square miles (mi2 ) of the 94,500-mi2 Red River Basin. The drainage area above Lake Kemp (fig. 1) is 2,086 mi2. The Wichita River Basin is characterized by rolling plains and prairie with an average annual (1961–90) rainfall of 28.9 inches at Wichita Falls (population about 100,000), the largest city in the basin (Ramos, 1997). Cattle grazing and agriculture are predominant industries outside the Wichita Falls city limits. One of the earliest oil fields in Texas, the Electra oil field, is in the basin; although some oil is still being produced, oil field activity has decreased from the boom years of the 1920s–30s. The surfacewater supply in this basin generally is of poor quality—dissolved solids concentrations vary from slightly saline (1,000 to 3,000 milligrams per liter (mg/L)) to very saline (10,000 to 35,000 mg/L).