Sedimentation of Kansas Dams

Sedimentation reduces the effectiveness of reservoirs in meeting several important needs including flood control, water supply, and recreation. Knowledge of the quantity and rate of sediment deposition, as well as the sources of the sediment, is of fundamental importance for effective reservoir and watershed management. The U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with Federal, State, and local agencies, has completed 20 reservoir sediment studies in Kansas during the past 10 years using a combination of bathymetric surveying and sediment coring. Specific objectives of these studies were to: (1) estimate total sediment volume and mass, (2) estimate annual sediment deposition and yield, (3) assess sediment quality with respect to available guidelines, and (4) provide a baseline for future assessments.

Results of these studies indicated that decreases in the water-storage capacity because of sedimentation ranged from less than 10 percent for Cheney Reservoir (south-central Kansas), Hillsdale Lake (northeast Kansas), and Webster Reservoir (north-central Kansas), to about 25 to 40 percent for Perry and Tuttle Creek Lakes (northeast Kansas). For Perry Lake, the rate of water-storage loss caused by sedimentation has been almost twice what was originally projected. Results also indicated that mean annual net sediment yield ranged from about 0.03 acre-ft/mi2 for the Webster Reservoir watershed to about 1.59 acre-ft/mi2 for the Perry Lake watershed.

Juracek, K.E., 2007, Sedimentation of Kansas dams [abs.], in Abstracts of Papers, Kansas Dam Safety Conference, March 12, 2007, Topeka, Kansas: Topeka, Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Water Resources, p. 42.