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Oil-field Areas of Ellis and Russell Counties

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Introduction

In July, 1941, an investigation of the ground-water resources of the oil-field areas of western, central, and southern Russell County and northeastern Ellis County was undertaken by the Division of Ground Water of the United States Geological Survey, the State Geological Survey of Kansas, and the Division of Sanitation of the Kansas State Board of Health, with the cooperation of the Division of Water Resources of the State Board of Agriculture. This work was under the immediate supervision of S. W. Lohman, Federal geologist in charge of ground-water investigations in Kansas, and Ogden S. Jones, geologist in charge of the Oil-field Section, Division of Sanitation, Kansas State Board of Health. The location of the area discussed in this report and of other areas in' Kansas on which cooperative ground-water reports have been published or are in preparation is shown in figure 1.

Figure 1--Map of Kansas showing the location of the area discussed in this report and other areas for which cooperative ground-water reports have been published or are in preparation.

Map of Kansas showing the location of the area discussed in this report

We spent three months in the field, assisted by Gordon Shaffer and Hubert Duckett. Outcrops of Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary rocks were studied, and thicknesses of the exposed formations were measured. A test-drilling program was carried out with a portable hydraulic rotary drilling machine owned by the State and Federal Geological Surveys and operated by Ellis Gordon, James Cooper, and LeRoy Fugitt. During the course of the field work, 232 water wells were visited by Gordon Shaffer and us, including 163 wells in Russell County and 69 wells in Ellis County. Instrumental levels were run to all of the test holes and to some of the wells by LeRoy Fugitt, assisted by John Conard. The depth to water level was measured in all of these wells, samples of water for chloride analysis were collected from most of them, and 2-liter samples of the water for complete chemical analyses were collected from 34 wells. The analyses of water were made by Howard Stoltenberg, chemist in the Water and Sewage Laboratory of the Kansas State Board of Health.

Microscopic examination was made of the cuttings obtained from the test holes and from a few oil wells in the area. Mechanical analyses and determinations of permeability of samples of sandstone from the Dakota formation and of samples of Quaternary and Tertiary sand and gravel in Russell County were made in the laboratories of the Geological Survey by us, assisted by Gordon Shaffer and L. P. Buck. C. W. Hibbard and A. B. Leonard spent several days with us in the field studying the Pleistocene deposits and collecting fossils. R. P. Keroher supplied information concerning the Permian rocks of this area. The stratigraphy was studied jointly by us and the ground-water conditions were studied by Frye. Brazil prepared the section on the history of oil-field development, and the remainder of the report was prepared by Frye. Chapters partly prepared on disposal of oil-field brines by Brazil have not been included because of his entrance into military service.

Thanks are expressed to the many residents of the area who assisted in the collection of field data. Thanks are also expressed to the Gulf Oil Corporation for the opportunity to study well samples from this area. The manscript for this report has been critically reviewed by O. E. Meinzer, W. D. Collins, and S. W. Lohman of the Federal Geological Survey; George S. Knapp, chief engineer, Division of Water Resources, Kansas State Board of Agriculture; and Paul Haney, acting director, Division of Sanitation, and Ogden S. Jones, geologist in charge of the Oil-field Waste Disposal Section, Kansas State Board of Health. Dorothea Weingartner drafted the illustrations and Edith H. Lewis edited the manuscript.


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Kansas Geological Survey, Geology
Placed on web Jan. 26, 2017; originally published December 1944.
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