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<br />Historically, there were at least 20 low head dams on the Big Blue River. At present, <br />only the following five are holding water: Crete, Wilber, DeWitt, Ho1mesville, and Barneston. <br />All of these dams, except Crete, are used in the generation of electric power. These <br />impoundments, in general, help to improve the water quality because they act like waste water <br />retention ponds. The impoundments contain a high plankton population which utilize many of <br />the pollutants as food. This is evidenced by the fact that there is a reduced phosphate content <br />and an increased dissolved oxygen content below most of the dams. The river does not show a <br />major increase in pollutants at the Kansas-Nebraska state line in spite of the fact that a large <br />amount of waste water is discharged into the river between Crete and the state line. <br /> <br />Marysville, Kansas obtains its drinking water from the Big Blue River. The present <br />quality meets the Kansas Health Department requirements for a raw drinking water supply. <br />However, the increasing amounts of waste water from municipal, industrial, and agricultural <br />users indicate there will need to be an upgrading of the waste water effluents. South of <br />Niarysville, the Big Blue River flows into Tuttle Creek Reservoir. Data collected by the <br />Nebraska State Health Department indicate that both the phosphate and nitrogen concentra- <br />tions are high enough to cause eutrophication at least in the upper reaches of the reservoir. <br /> <br />Table 7 shows the chemical water quality of the Big Blue River at Crete and Barneston <br />based upon a large series of analyses by the Nebraska: Department of Health. For each <br />analysis, the maximum, minimum, and modal concentrations are given. The mode is the value <br />which occurs most frequently and was used because it appeared to represent the most reliable <br />value. The data in Table 7 show little change in the concentration of chemical ions between <br />Crete and Barneston. (13) <br /> <br /> <br />33 <br />