Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Part II A and B

Part II C and D

Part III

Part IV

References

Summary

Contents

Introduction to ground-water recharge, discharge, and sustainability

Acknowledgments

Part I. Understanding ground-water recharge

Summary of Part I

1. Introduction and terminology
2. Ground-water flow systems
3. Flow-system extensions
4. Sources and mechanisms of recharge
5. Conceptual models of recharge (Hatton, 1998)
6. Methodologies for recharge estimation
7. Accuracy of recharge estimates
8. Factors influencing recharge, predictive relationships, and recharge regionalization
8.1 Factors influencing recharge
8.2 Predictive relations and recharge regionalization
9. Difficulties and challenges in recharge estimation

Appendix A. Physical methods for recharge estimation
A1. Indirect physical methods
A2. Direct physical methods
Appendix B. Tracer methods for recharge estimation (Allison et al., 1994)
Appendix C. Recharge-related glossary

Part II. Recharge and water budgets of the Kansas High Plains and associated aquifers
Preface to Part II

A. Climatic soil-water balance studies on regional scales

A1. USGS study on natural recharge for principal aquifers in Kansas (Hansen, 1991)
A2. USGS study of soil-water conditions in the Great Plains (Dugan and Zelt, 2000)

B. Large-area ground-water modeling or analysis

B1. USGS RASA study of the High Plains aquifer (Luckey et al., 1986)
B2. USGS study of the High Plains aquifer in Oklahoma and adjacent areas, including the High Plains aquifer of southwestern Kansas (Luckey and Becker, 1999)
B3. USGS study of the High Plains aquifer in western Kansas (Stullken et al., 1985)
B4. USGS study of the Dakota and High Plains aquifers of southwestern Kansas (Watts, 1989)
B5. USGS study of the High Plains aquifer in Oklahoma, including some Kansas counties (Havens and Christenson, 1984)
B6. KGS/USGS study of geohydrology of southwestern Kansas (Gutentag et al., 1981)
B7. Kansas Governor’s Task Force on Water Resources Interim Report (1977)
B8. KGS study of the Ogallala aquifer in Kansas (O’Connor and McClain, 1982)
B9. Great Bend Prairie aquifer regional recharge estimates (Fader and Stullken, 1978; Cobb et al., 1983)
B10. Other regional studies involving Kansas High Plains recharge estimates (Jenkins and Pabst, 1975; Landon, 2001, 2002; Hecox, 2003)

C. Basin-scale to county-scale ground-water studies

C1. Wichita and Scott counties
C2. Lane and Scott counties, west-central Kansas
C3. Arkansas River valley in Hamilton and Kearny counties
C4. Unconsolidated aquifer system of Kearny and Finney counties
C5. Upper Arkansas River corridor in southwestern Kansas
C6. Finney County
C7. Ford County
C8. Pawnee Valley (Sophocleous, 1980, 1981)
C9. Wet Walnut Creek basin, west-central Kansas
C10. Solomon River basin, Kansas
C11. Arkansas River valley from Kinsley to Great Bend
C12. Rattlesnake Creek watershed, south-central Kansas
C13. Water budgets for the major Kansas wetlands of Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira National Wildlife Refuge

C14. Equus Beds aquifer modeling
C15. Other county-scale studies

a) Grant and Stanton counties, southwest Kansas
b) Seward County
c) Meade County
d) McPherson moratorium area, Equus Beds aquifer

D. Field-based experimental recharge studies

D1. Movement of moisture in the unsaturated zone in a dune area, southwestern Kansas (Prill, 1968)
D2. Pilot recharge assessment at two sites in south-central Kansas (Great Bend Prairie and Equus Beds aquifers) (Sophocleous and Perry, 1985)
D3. Recharge assessment for the Great Bend Prairie aquifer in GMD5
(Sophocleous, 1992, 2000c)
D4. Deep vadose zone study of ground-water recharge in the High Plains aquifer of southwestern Kansas (Sophocleous et al., 2002; McMahon et al., 2003)

Part III. Conceptualization of the Kansas High Plains aquifer and its recharge characteristics, including suggestions for appropriate recharge-quantification techniques

1. Conceptualizing High Plains aquifer recharge
2. Appropriate techniques for quantifying recharge in the High Plains aquifer

Part IV. County-by-county and districtwide tabulated recharge values and related statistics (in excel spreadsheets) for the Kansas Groundwater Management District regions based on KGS Bulletins and other publications

West-central Kansas (GMD1 region) (Pdf)
Equus Beds aquifer (GMD2 region)
Southwest Kansas (GMD3 region)
Northwest Kansas (GMD4 region)
Great Bend Prairie (GMD5 region)

References

Index

Figures

I-1. Schematic representation of the hydrologic cycle (from Freeze, 1974)
I-2. Effects and manifestations of gravity-driven flow in a regionally unconfined drainage basin (adapted from Toth, 1999)
I-3. Recharge from streambeds (a) with hydraulic connection, and (b) with no hydraulic connection
I-4. Schematic representation of the fluxes involved during infiltration into a macroporous soil
I-5. Soil-moisture deficit versus available water capacity for grassland, dryland, and irrigated cropland for the upper two-thirds of the Rattlesnake Creek basin in south-central Kansas (from Sophocleous and McAllister, 1987)
I-6. Actual evapotranspiration versus available-water capacity for grassland, dryland, and irrigated cropland for the upper two-thirds of the Rattlesnake Creek basin in south-central Kansas (from Sophocleous and McAllister, 1987)
I-7. Deep drainage versus available water capacity for grassland, dryland, and irrigated cropland for the lower one-third of the Rattlesnake Creek basin in south-central Kansas (from Sophocleous and McAllister, 1987)
I-8. Grassland water-balance components for (b) the lower one-third and (a) the rest of the Rattlesnake Creek basin in south-central Kansas (from Sophocleous and McAllister, 1987)
I-9. Effects of vegetation on deep drainage in the lower one-third of the Rattlesnake Creek basin in south-central Kansas (from Sophocleous and McAllister, 1987)
I-10. Four recharge-related gis coverages for the Great Bend Prairie region of south-central Kansas
I-11. gis coverage showing recharge zonations for the Great Bend Prairie region of south-central Kansas
II-1. Flowchart of soil-water simulation (adapted from Dugan and Zelt, 2000)
II-2. Mean annual potential natural recharge (in inches per year) and extent of High Plains aquifer in Kansas (adapted from Hansen, 1991)
II-3. Potential annual recharge for the High Plains aquifer in Kansas under nonirrigated conditions (A), irrigated conditions weighted towards high-water demand row crops (B), and combined nonirrigated and irrigated conditions (C)—a weighted combination of (A) and (B)— over the period 1951–1980 32–33
II-4. Estimated predevelopment, long-term average recharge rates (A) and generalized soil types (B) for the central High Plains aquifer (adapted form Luckey et al., 1986)
II-5. Composite 1960–1980 recharge for the development-period model of the northern High Plains aquifer (adapted from Luckey et al., 1986)
II-6. Simulated greater-recharge areas for the central High Plains aquifer (adapted from Luckey and Becker, 1999)
II-7. Simulated water-level changes in the central High Plains aquifer for 1998–2020 using mean 1996–1997 pumpage
II-8. Simulated predevelopment, end of 1997, and end of 2019 water budgets for the central High Plains studied by Luckey and Becker (adapted from Luckey and Becker, 1999)
II-9. Finite-difference grid of model and study areas in southwestern Kansas with simulated leakage between High Plains and underlying aquifers, 1982 (adapted from Watts, 1989)
II-10. Rattlesnake Creek subwatersheds and simulated average (1955–1994) recharge rate (inches/yr) in each sub-watershed
II-11. Percent of annual precipitation for the period 1946–1970 falling on subbasin 5 within the drainage basin of Little Arkansas River (encompassing Halstead and Sedgwick, Kansas) that percolates to ground water (adapted from Green et al., 1973)
II-12. Simulated predevelopment (1940) recharge distribution in the Equus Beds aquifer, Kansas (adapted from Spinazola et al., 1985)
II-13. Groundwater Management District No. 5 boundary with ground-water recharge assessment sites
III-1. East-west cross section through the Ogallala Formation and Quaternary deposits in Stanton, Grant, and Haskell counties, southwestern Kansas

Tables

I-1. Comparison of six different methods for estimation for ground-water recharge that were tested in southeastern Sweden
I-2. Classification of the applied methods for estimation of ground-water recharge (shown in Table I-1) according to the resolution in time of their results
II-1. Comparison of deep percolation for irrigated conditions (DPI) with deep percolation for nonirrigated conditions (DPD) for selected soils and crop types at Kearney, NE, and Holyoke, CO, 1951–1980
II-2. Comparison of deep percolation for combined nonirrigated and irrigated conditions for actual vegetation with deep percolation for nonirrigated conditions for grassland for Clay-Silty Clay Loam soil at selected sites, 1951–1980
II-3. Water budget from steady-state simulation of High Plains aquifer, northwest Kansas
II-4. Water budget from steady-state simulation of High Plains aquifer, southwest Kansas
II-5. Simulated 1982 water budgets for the High Plains and Dakota aquifers
II-6. Steady state (1941) and end of simulation (1980) water budgets for the High Plains regional aquifer in northwestern Oklahoma
II-7. 1975 water budget (partial) for southwestern Kansas
II-8. Hydrologic budget component estimates for the Ogallala aquifer in western Kansas as of 1975
II-9. Estimated recharge from precipitation and irrigation return flow to the Ogallala aquifer in western Kansas, as of 1977
II-10. 1971 and 1972 water budgets for Scott County
II-11. Simulated water budget for Arkansas River alluvium between Colorado–Kansas state line and Bear Creek Fault Zone, Kearny and Hamilton counties, Kansas
II-12. Simulated water budget for unconsolidated aquifer system of Kearny and Finney counties, 1980
II-13. Water budget from steady-state (1940’s) model simulation of Upper Arkansas River Corridor in southwestern Kansas
II-14. Water-balance components for the Finney County study area (552,960 acres). Data for 1940–1964
II-15. 1980 water budget for Ford County underlain by the Ogallala aquifer
II-16. Mean and median of the 1960–1996 water budget components for the Wet Walnut Creek valley aquifer
II-17. North Fork Solomon River valley from Kirwin to Glen Elder dams used to simulate steady-state (1946) conditions

II-18. Average (1970–78) hydrologic budget for the South Fork Solomon River valley from Webster to Glen Elder dams
II-19. Simulated steady-state and transient ground-water budgets of Arkansas River valley from Kinsley to Great Bend
II-20. Predevelopment (c.1955) and development (1988–1990) water budgets for the lower Rattlesnake Creek watershed
II-21. Predevelopment (pre-1960) and present-day (1991–94) annual water budgets for the Rattlesnake Creek basin
II-22. Average 1983 and 1984 water-year budget for the Drummond–Tabler soil association encompassing the Cheyenne Bottoms in Barton County, Kansas
II-23. 1985–1992 hydrologic budget components for Quivira National Wildlife Refuge (based on Hudson NOAA climatic station), south-central Kansas
II-24. Simulated water budget for the Equus Beds aquifer
II-25. Simulated steady-state and transient ground-water budgets for all three model layers of the Equus Beds aquifer
II-26. 1978 water-budget analysis of the McPherson moratorium area, Equus Beds aquifer
II-27. 1985–1992 site-specific ground-water recharge estimates for GMD5
II-28. Recharge zonation of GMD5 based on GIS overlay analysis
II-29. Measured hydraulic-head gradients and estimated water fluxes in deep, unsaturated High Plains sediments based on heat-dissipation sensors
IV-1. Western Kansas Ogallala aquifer recharge estimates and related statistics based on three-agency estimates: Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), Kansas Water Resources Board (KWRB), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)