News Release

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

4821 Quail Crest Place

Lawrence, KS 66049-3839

September 10, 2009

Contacts:

Jennifer Graham                 Donita Turk

jlgraham@usgs.gov          dmturk@usgs.gov

785-832-3511                      785-832-3570

Water Quality Monitoring Indicates Challenges Remain in Cheney Reservoir Tributaries

Cheney Reservoir, located on the North Fork Ninnescah River in south-central Kansas, is the primary water supply for the city of Wichita and an important regional  recreational resource. Concerns about taste-and-odor occurrences in Cheney Reservoir have drawn attention to potential non-point source chemicals, includ­ing total phosphorus (TP) and total suspended solids (TSS). July 2009 was the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Cheney Reservoir Watershed pollution management plan.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the city of Wichita, has collected and interpreted water-quality data in the basin since 1996, and has monitored water quality continuously on the North Fork Ninnescah River since 1998. Results from continuous monitoring provide additional information about water quality by documenting changing conditions - hourly, daily, weekly, seasonally, annually, and in response to different flow conditions.  Improved understanding of the stream system leads to more effective management strategies for protecting and improving water quality.

Key findings from the twelve years of monitoring included:

• Long-term and baseflow total phosphorous goals were never met on an annual basis. Annual suspended sediment goals for long-term were met every year and baseflow goals were never met.  
• Decreases in annual total phosphorous and total suspended solids concentrations in the North Fork Ninnescah River were not discernable during 1997 to 2008, despite about 1500 BMP (best management practices) contracts between 1994-2009 in the watershed.

"The City of Wichita wants to be proactive in assuring Wichita's water quality. Working with the Cheney Reservoir Watershed Management Group to implement best management practices in the watershed is a long-term investment to ensure the future water-quality of Cheney Reservoir,” states Deb Ary, Superintendant of Production and Pumping since April 2009.  “It will take a long time to see the influence of best management practices on the water quality of Cheney Reservoir and it's associated tributaries. Indeed improvements have been made; what would conditions be if we had done nothing since 1992?”

The Citizens Management Committee (CMC), composed of city officials, farmers, and other interested parties in the watershed, realized the water-quality situation in Cheney Reservoir was complex and would need long-term solutions. The effects of BMP implementation on water quality in the North Fork Ninnescah River and Cheney Reservoir may not be evident for many years.

A fact sheet was recently released describing 12 years (1997–2008) of computed TP and TSS data for the North Fork Ninnescah River and comparing these data with the water-quality goals established by the Cheney Reservoir Task Force.  The fact sheet is available on the web at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3073/.

For more information on the Cheney Reservoir and watershed study, see

http://ks.water.usgs.gov/studies/qw/cheney/

Other information about water resources in Kansas can be found at:

http://ks.water.usgs.gov/