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Ground water sample collection near the injection water treatment facility.
Description of Study
Much of the water supply for the City of Wichita comes from the Equus Beds aquifer.
The available water supply for the city of Wichita must be increased to meet its future water needs
through 2050. In order to meet this need, the Equus Beds Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)
Project Phase I began in 2006 “to inject ground water into the Equus Beds Aquifer for the
purpose of storage and later recovery of the ground water and to form a hydraulic barrier to a
known brine plume” (Kansas Underground Injection Control Area Permit Class V Injection Well,
Kansas Permit No. KS-05-079-001).
The Equus Beds ASR Project Phase 1 is funded by the City of Wichita. The United States
Geological Survey (USGS), Groundwater Management District Number 2 (GMD2), and two engineering
consultant firms also are contributing funds, expertise and personnel to complete, design, and study
the effectiveness of the aquifer storage and recovery project. The USGS role in activities with the
city of Wichita is to describe the water resources in the Equus Beds aquifer and the Little Arkansas River;
specifically streamflow, stream and ground water-quality, and changes in ground-water levels and
storage historically since 1940.
The Equus Beds ASR Project Phase 1 will divert water from the Little Arkansas River through bank
storage (diversion) wells, completed adjacent to the stream, when flow in the Little Arkansas River
exceeds base flow. Base flow is defined in Kansas Permit No. KS-05-079-001 as flow greater than
57 cubic feet per second (cfs) from April 1 through September 30 and 20 cfs from October 1 through
March 31 as recorded at the USGS streamgaging station Little Arkansas River at Highway 50 near
Halstead, Kansas (07143672). The diverted water then will be artificially recharged into the
Equus Beds aquifer through injection wells and recharge basins according to permit guidelines in
Kansas Underground Injection Control Area Permit Class V Injection Well, Kansas Permit No. KS-05-079-001.
The objective of the USGS portion of this study is to provide ground water-quality monitoring from 2006
through 2009 “to evaluate the impact of the injection operation on the Equus Beds aquifer” according to
Kansas Underground Injection Control Area Permit Class V Injection Well, Kansas Permit No. KS-05-079-001.
This will be accomplished by collecting water-quality samples from monitoring wells (30) installed by the
city of Wichita and named in Kansas Permit No. KS-05-079-001 as well as “all domestic wells (6) within
one-quarter mile of the recharge/recovery wells and recharge basins” (Kansas Underground Injection Control
Area Permit Class V Injection Well, Kansas Permit No. KS-05-079-001).
The USGS also will provide annual monitoring of the source water for injection for Tables 1-7 as required
by Kansas Permit No. KS-05-079-001.
Water-quality data will be reported to the city of Wichita and available to the Kansas Department
of Health and Environment (KDHE), Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Water Resources (DWR),
Ground Water Management District #2 (GMD2), and the public by means of the world wide web
at http://ks.water.usgs.gov/studies/equus “no later than 90 days following the completion of a
monitoring well network sampling event,” (Kansas Underground Injection Control Area Permit Class V
Injection Well, Kansas Permit No. KS-05-079-001). An interpretive report describing the baseline water
quality in the Equus Beds aquifer as well as the effects of the first two years of Equus Beds ASR
Project Phase I will be published in FY 2009.
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WATER DATA & STUDIES
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey
