Understanding Changing Water-Quality Conditions in the Kansas River: Informing Management Strategies Through a Real-Time Water-Quality Notification System and 50-Year Retrospective Analysis
Period of Project: July 2018 through June 2023
Study Overview
The Kansas River and its associated alluvial aquifer are primary sources of drinking water for about 800,000 people in northeastern Kansas. In addition to serving as a drinking-water supply, designated uses of the Kansas River include recreation, aquatic life support, food procurement, groundwater recharge, irrigation, and livestock watering. Water-treatment facilities that use the Kansas River as a water-supply source use chemical and physical processes during water treatment to remove contaminants before public distribution. Advanced notification of changing water-quality conditions near water-supply intakes allows water-treatment facilities to proactively adjust treatment.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Kansas Water Office (funded in part through the Kansas Water Plan), the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, The Nature Conservancy, the City of Lawrence, the City of Manhattan, the City of Olathe, the City of Topeka, and Johnson County WaterOne, collect water-quality data in the Kansas River to update and develop regression models relating continuous water-quality sensor measurements, streamflow, and seasonal components to discretely sampled water-quality constituent concentrations or densities. The water-quality information collected during this study can be used as guidance for water-treatment processes and to characterize changes in water-quality conditions in the Kansas River over time that would not be otherwise possible.
