Ground-water studies in the Missouri River Basin were begun by the U.S. Geological Survey during the fall of 1945 as a part of the program for development of the resources of the basin by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and other Federal agencies. The studies of the ground-water resources in the part of Kansas that lies within the basin have been coordinated with the cooperative program of ground-water studies already being carried on in Kansas by the Federal Geological Survey and the Kansas State Geological Survey with the cooperation of the Division of Sanitation of the Kansas State Board of health and the Division of Water Resources of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture.
Areas in which ground-water data have been collected under the Missouri Basin program include the Almena Unit in Norton and Phillips Counties; the Bostwick Unit in Jewell, Republic, and Cloud Counties; the Cedar Bluff Unit in Ellis and Trego Counties; the Glen Elder Unit in Mitchell County; the Kanopolis Unit in McPherson and Saline Counties; the Kirwin Unit in Phillips, Smith, and Osborne Counties; the St. Francis Unit in Cheyenne County; the Webster Unit in Osborne County; and the Wilson Unit in Lincoln County.
Most of the ground-water data presented in this report were collected during 1948. Most of the data collected in these areas prior to the end of 1947 were presented in a report mimeographed in September 1948. This report and the previous report are the first two of a series of annual reports on ground-water studies in the Missouri Basin units in Kansas. These reports are a means of more promptly releasing for administrative use the data collected each year. Data for a given area that are included in the annual reports will be assembled later in a report on the geology and hydrology of that area.
