Kansas Geological Survey, Open-File Rept. 96-1a
Proposed Management Areas--Page 8 of 16
Development of Water Resources of Marginal Quality
Ground-water of marginal quality is defined in this report
as ground water with a total dissolved solids concentration
that exceeds 1,500 mg/L, but is less than 10,000 mg/L. The
distribution of ground-water total dissolved solids in
Figure 3 shows that a large
part of the usable Dakota aquifer contains
ground water of marginal quality. In most instances, the
dominant water type is sodium-chloride with chloride
concentrations ranging from less than 500 up to nearly 5,000
mg/L. Areas of the Dakota containing these marginal quality
ground waters include much of north-central Kansas west of
the outcrop belt and portions of northwest Kansas. In these
parts of Kansas, the shallower freshwater sources available to
users are generally limited to the already fully developed
stream-aquifer systems, surface water reservoirs, or to the
thinly saturated fingers of the High Plains aquifer. For the
municipalities the costs associated with locating, acquiring,
and developing these shrinking supplies are escalating with
time. Eventually the cost of obtaining a freshwater supply
may become so great that other alternative sources will become
preferable.
In the future the marginal quality water (certainly up to
5,000 mg/L total dissolved solids) from the Dakota may become
a source for high value uses, such as for public water supply
and industry. Many of the cities and rural water districts
in central Kansas, in particular, will be faced with the
choice of using the fresher but very costly waters for their
supply or the marginal quality ground waters of the Dakota
aquifer as their primary or secondary source of supply. In
this regard, the experience of the City of Hays is noteworthy.
Faced with a diminishing source of supply from its Smoky Hill
valley well field, Hays had to locate and develop an additional
supply from the Dakota aquifer to meet its needs. Since 1993,
the city has blended ground-water pumped from the Dakota with
the fresher ground water pumped from their shallow well
fields. The city has also experimented with using the
elecrodialysis reverse process (Ionics, Inc.) to remove some
of the dissolved solids from the Dakota aquifer.
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Table of Contents
Kansas Geological Survey, Dakota Aquifer Program
Original report available from the Kansas Geological Survey.
Electronic version placed online July 1996
Scientific comments to P. Allen Macfarlane
Web comments to webadmin@kgs.ku.edu
URL=http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Dakota/vol3/ofr961a/man08.htm