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Ground-water Resources of Kansas

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Ground-water Resources of Kansas

By Raymond C. Moore

With chapters by S. W. Lohman, J. C. Frye, H. A. Waite, T. G. McLaughlin and Bruce Latta

Cover of the book; gray-patterned tan paper with black text.

Originally published in 1940 as Kansas Geological Survey Bulletin 27. This is, in general, the original text as published. The information has not been updated. An Acrobat PDF version (39 MB) is also available.

Foreword

People of Kansas are very much concerned about the subject of water resources, although some of them are inclined to give evidence of this concern only when there is a marked deficiency in supply of water or when danger to their property arises from floods. Well-informed citizens know that a state-wide policy of water control and conservation is necessary to the proper development of Kansas. Various federal, state, and local agencies are now engaged in work that is directed toward establishment of the best possible water economy in Kansas, providing for storage or other means of obtaining adequate water supplies in years of drought and regulating flood waters as far as possible. Practices for conservation of soil go hand in hand with conservation and control of water resources.

Water obtained or obtainable from zones below the surface of the ground constitutes a natural resource of Kansas that is comparable in importance to the soil. Both ground water and soil are essentially dependent on geological conditions and are properly included, therefore, as subjects of geological investigation. Advances in technical studies in these fields, however, have resulted in the development of special sciences. That relating to ground-water hydrology includes applications of geology, physics, chemistry, and engineering. The ground waters of Kansas are now being investigated by men specially trained along these lines, under a program of work arranged by the State Geological Survey and the United States Geological Survey in cooperation. This work is coordinated with other activities that are carried on by the Water Resources Division of the State Board of Agriculture, and the Division of Sanitation of the State Board of Health, the Soil Conservation Service, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, and Agricultural Adjustment Administration of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. There is urgent need for continuation and enlargement of this work to determine the nature of water-supply conditions in Kansas and the manner of conserving, controlling, and utilizing the water resources of the state.

The following paper on the ground-water resources of Kansas consists mainly of a discussion requested for inclusion on the program of the Farm and Home Week at Kansas State College. It was presented at Manhattan on February 9, 1940, and with some modifications it is printed in order to be available for circulation to the many people of Kansas who desire information concerning the ground-water resources of the state. The paper is entirely general in scope. It is hoped that such a presentation will be found useful as introduction to detailed ground-water reports on specific areas in Kansas, to be published later.

Raymond C. Moore, State Geologist and Director


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Kansas Geological Survey, Geohydrology
Placed on web Dec. 11, 2015; originally published June 25, 1940.
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