Water Quality

Real-time water-quality information in the monitoring system includes hourly measurements of streamflow, specific conductance, pH, water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. Because sensor technology currently is not available to directly measure many chemicals of interest in a stream, statistical models are developed to link constituents in laboratory-analyzed samples with the in-stream continuous-sensor measurements. As the hourly sensor measurements are transmitted from the gaging stations to the USGS computers in Lawrence, Kansas, the models are applied and the computed estimates displayed to the web page. The uncertainty of the estimates also is documented so decisions made on the basis of the estimates can be put in proper management perspective.

Cyanobacteria may produce taste-and-odor
compounds that cause malodorous or unpalatable drinking water.
Cheney Reservoir, Kansas.  June 2003.
Photo Courtesy of KDHE.

The High Plains aquifer system underlies 175,000 square miles in parts of eight States (CO, KS, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, and WY) (figure 1). Approximately 27 percent of the irrigated land in the United States is in the High Plains and about 30 percent of the ground water used for irrigation in the U.S. is pumped from the High Plains aquifer.

The quality of water in the High Plains aquifer generally is suitable for irrigation use but, in many places, the water does not meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking-water standards with respect to several dissolved constituents (dissolved solids/salinity, fluoride, chloride, and sulfate). Only sparsely scattered water-quality data are available for pesticides, volatile organic compounds, and trace metals in the High Plains aquifer system. Nutrient data are available, to a varying degree, across the aquifer.