KU News Release

Governor, officials and researchers to tackle reservoir sediment at KU-hosted summit

LAWRENCE — A decades-long buildup of sediment across Kansas’ public reservoirs has created a little-known crisis in the state.

Today more than 60 percent of Kansans face potential problems with the quality of their drinking water — such as tastes described as “musty,” “fishy” or “earthen.” In the meantime, ever-increasing siltation threatens reservoirs’ usefulness for flood control, irrigation and recreation.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, the University of Kansas will host a “Kansas Reservoir Summit” organized by the Kansas Water Office to address this urgent situation. The event brings together Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, governmental agencies, researchers and businesspeople to discuss the problem of reservoir sedimentation.

“The siltation in Kansas reservoirs has been off the radar of many people,” said Mark Jakubauskas, associate research professor with the Kansas Biological Survey and team leader of the Applied Science and Technology for Reservoir Assessment initiative at KU. “But the Kansas Water Office realizes that this is a major issue that affects Kansas citizens economically and physically. Without water, we’re in a lot of trouble.”

The summit will feature a keynote presentation from Edward Martinko, professor and director of the biological survey. Martinko will address choices faced by officials dealing with sediment buildup, such as dredging and construction of new reservoirs.

Other speakers will include Sebelius, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation Robert Johnson and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works John Paul Woodley.

Summit participants also will review data from ASTRA’s research at KU. As one example of the siltation dilemma in Kansas, Perry Lake in Jefferson County has lost more than 1,000 acres of surface area because of the accumulation of 91.5 million cubic yards of sediment in the past 30 years.

“We build reservoirs where there aren’t any natural lakes, and Mother Nature tries to fill them right back in again,” said Jakubauskas. “Silt washes off the land and gradually fills in the reservoir. When they fill in they lose water storage capacity. What’s more, the silt has nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus that cause algae outbreaks. As the algae dies and breaks down they produce taste and odor problems in the water.”

In Kansas, Jakubauskas said, water quality trouble in part traced to siltation has struck Wichita’s Cheney Lake and Lawrence’s Clinton Lake. In 2003, the communities of Marion and Hillsboro were forced to truck in drinking water because of quality problems with water from Marion Lake.

Currently, the Kansas Biological Survey’s ASTRA group is working under a $165,000 contract with the Kansas Water Office to map four federal and four smaller reservoirs. In addition to satellite imaging and a 24-foot pontoon boat equipped as a sediment-coring platform, the team employs state-of-the-art bathymetric mapping sonar that creates 3-D color-coded depth maps of reservoirs.

“We go up and down a lake taking sonar measurements of the lake’s depth,” said Jakubauskas. “In the past, a weighted line or a pole was used to take such depth measurements. It wasn’t very accurate and their location wasn’t very accurate. They might get 300 measurements in a single day. But with our sonar unit, we get between 100,000 and 500,000 measurements of the depth in a day.”

For more information about siltation visit the ASTRA Web site or the Kansas Water Office site.

The Kansas Reservoir Summit takes place from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. at the Dole Institute for Politics, 2350 Petefish Dr. on KU’s west campus in Lawrence. The event is closed to the public and media must secure a press pass before attending.

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