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2014 – Land, Sky, and People (Cathy Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal Hoy, Jim Hoy, Marty White, Editors)

Kansas, the Flint Hills, and Water

Susan Stover

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Recommended Citation Stover, Susan (2014). "Kansas, the Flint Hills, and Water," Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal. https://newprairiepress.org/sfh/2014/flinthills/5

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This is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Kansas, the Flint Hills, and Water

Water has carved the distinctive rolling landscape of the Flint Hills, with its limestone ledges and hilltops thick with chert gravel. Water has also shaped how people have settled across Kansas and made use of the land. Early travelers followed the rivers. Prior to the railroad the Arkansas and Kansas Rivers served to transport people and goods. In June 1855, the steamboat Hartford ran aground on its way to Fort Riley; the immigrants aboard considered their options and stayed to establish the town of Manhattan. Water was proposed as the northern boundary when statehood was discussed: the Platte River formed a natural boundary between the Kansas and Nebraska territories, being too wide to bridge and too shallow to ferry across. Reportedly, politics played a large role in the decision not to annex southern Nebraska into the new state of Kansas, as Republicans at the Wyandotte Constitutional Convention in 1859 thought it would add too many Democrats. That decision has left Kansas and Nebraska in protracted disagreements in regard to

opposite page: Sunset Stratas, Rod Seel

17 production in western Kansas relies on first in time, first in right. When there Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas Rivers, groundwater from one of the world’s isn’t enough to meet all water needs, it is which are state-owned to the high water great aquifers, the Ogallala High Plains. the senior right that gets the water. Once mark and open to the public. The eastern half of Kansas has higher approved by the Chief Engineer-Division There isn’t a water right for stream rainfall and more reliable streams. of Water Resources, Kansas Department flow; however, Minimum Desirable Surface water provides the dominant of Agriculture, a water right allows Streamflow (MDS) functions much the source for most uses in eastern Kansas. the owner to use water for a specified, same way. An MDS protects water Water in the Flint Hills comes beneficial purpose. As long as the water quality, fish and wildlife needs, and primarily from the rivers that cross this right stays in good standing, the water existing water uses. There are specific region, including portions of the Smoky right is permanent and can be passed to flow targets established at thirty-three Hill, Republican, Kansas, Neosho, the next landowner. A water right can U.S. Geological Survey stream gauges Cottonwood, and Walnut Rivers. There be sold, and its priority date stays with it, on twenty-three rivers. When an MDS is groundwater use from alluvial aquifers even if the type of use changes. Riparian isn’t met for seven consecutive days,

top: People in Canoe adjacent to rivers where fluvial deposits landowners along Kansas streams do water rights that are MDS-junior above: Two Fishermen hold usable amounts of water, such as not have a right to the water without a may be required to reduce or stop Courtesy Butler County History Center and Kansas Oil Musuem along the Smoky Hill and Kansas Rivers, water right; however, on most streams pumping. During the recent droughts, equitably sharing the Republican River, and the Cottonwood and Whitewater their property includes the river bank many streams did not meet MDS and which weaves between our states. Rivers. The Flint Hills aquifer has and bed. The implication for fishermen, The quantity and availability of limited water in the Permian-aged canoeists, and other users is that access water vary markedly across Kansas. The limestone beds, with yields sufficient or travel on most streams change in precipitation from western for domestic and stockwater wells. In requires permission from Kansas to its eastern border differs as total, though, most use in the Flint Hills the adjacent landowners. much as eastern Kansas to the east coast comes from surface water. The exceptions are the of the . Western Kansas Water belongs to the people of Kansas. Beaumont has low rainfall and limited surface Since 1945, ground and surface water Water Tower water. The impressive agricultural rights are based on prior appropriation: Stephen Perry

18 19 hundreds of junior water rights were Kansas power plant energy production major concern as storage capacity is administered, including along Chapman relies on water from Kansas reservoirs. lost; over 30 percent of Council Grove Creek in Dickinson County, Walnut The droughts of 2011, 2012, and 2013 and roughly 40 percent of Tuttle Creek River at Winfield, and Whitewater remind us of the value of reservoirs; it was and John Redmond state-owned storage River near Towanda. the releases from reservoirs that helped is gone. Efforts to slow sedimentation Kansas has few natural lakes but is keep streams flowing and communities occur through stream-bank stabilization fortunate to have twenty-three federal supplied with water. Water for livestock and best management practices. reservoirs, more than forty state fishing was made available during the drought Restoring lost reservoir capacity is also lakes, seventy-five municipal lakes, emergency from several federal and state needed, with and an estimated quarter million lakes. Reservoirs have a design life the priority for dredging. Reservoirs are farm ponds and small impoundments. when built, and many are not so young essential to meet current demands in the Federal reservoirs in the Flint Hills are anymore. Our reliance on reservoirs event of an extended drought similar Tuttle Creek, Milford, Council Grove, requires they be maintained and part of to the 1950s. Kansas is experiencing a Marion, and El Dorado. John Redmond the permanent infrastructure. Besides warming climate and is projected to get

Reservoir is fed by a watershed that age, the main risks to our reservoirs are more extreme weather. Total annual top: Shadow on El Dorado Lake partly lies in the Flint Hills. The State sedimentation, water quality, and invasive precipitation may be similar but may above: Ground Fog Neil Marcus owns storage in thirteen of the federal species. has repeatedly occur in less frequent, more intense reservoirs for municipal and industrial experienced toxic algal blooms. Zebra storms. Well-maintained reservoirs will use, including all but El Dorado mussels are small, razor-sharp, and they help us manage the and provide Susan Stover, a professional geologist and Reservoir in the Flint Hills. A few cities cover most hard surfaces, often clogging water during the extended dry spells. environmental scientist, is manager of High Plains Issues at the Kansas Water also own storage in federal reservoirs, water intake pipes. They have spread to Population and economic growth Office. She also serves on the Kansas Water including the city of El Dorado in El all of the federal reservoirs in the Flint depend on reliable, clean water. Our Research Institute Committee, the Kansas Dorado Reservoir. Roughly two-thirds Hills, except for Tuttle Creek, and have rivers require the same to maintain Geologic Mapping Advisory Committee, and chairs the Geological Society of of Kansans depend on reservoirs for at also invaded Winfield City Lake, Chase aquatic life, ecological function, and America’s Geology and Public Policy least a portion of their water supply. County State Fishing Lake, and Council aesthetic value. Water will shape our Committee. She holds an M.S. in geology Additionally, nearly 60 percent of Grove City Lake. Sedimentation is a future, just as it has our past. from the University of Kansas.

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