BOARD00179 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 5/23/2007
• Description: Director's Report - CWCB Director's Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Measurements show groundwater Ieve~s continued to drop in 2006:
Groundwater levels in central and western Kansas continued to decline in 2006,
according to measurements made by the K.Jsas Geological Survey, based at the
University of Kansas, and the Division of W~ter Resources of the Kansas Department of
Agriculture. i

While water levels continued a trend of decl~e in western Kansas, the water levels in
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central Kansas saw renewed decline after hol~iing steady just the year before. Strong
winter storms that hit western Kansas hampe'red data collection this year.
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Preliminary data from western Kansas wells, most of them in the Ogallala aquifer,
showed an average decline of about 0.94 feet since January 2006, compared to an
average decline of about 0.57 feet in 2005. Bedluse of the weather delay and missed
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wells, however, a meaningful comparison be~een 2005 and 2006 may not be available
until next year. I
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Water levels in central Kansas were lower than! previous years, according to the
measurements. The Equus Beds area north of\fichita and Big Bend region of central
Kansas showed a drop of about 2.17 feet and 1.:29 feet, respectively, since January 2006.
This compares to a 0.03-foot increase and a O. 1 iI-foot decrease the year before.
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The 2006 water level data are considered preliminary and are subject to additional study
and revision. The 2006 measurements can be vi~wed and accessed online at
http://www.kgs.ku.edulMagellanlWaterLevels/ihdex.html.

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Break in Fountain Creek Embankment Inu;ndates 50 Acre Area of Pueblo: On
the morning of Monday, May 8th, a 200-foot sectton of embankment was breached,
causing a 50 acre basin within the City of Pueblq to fill with water from Fountain Creek
flood flows. According to local residents, this e~bankment has operated as a de facto
"levee" protecting this basin for many years. As! of the time of this writing, many factors
are still being investigated, including what caused the failure, and the purpose, history,
and ownership of the embankment. According tb Dennis Maroney, Stormwater Utility
Director for the City of Pueblo, the cause of the flpod was a sudden shift of the Fountain
Creek channel which caused flows to attack the eh1bankment, weakening it to the point
of failure. Maroney stated to CWCB staff that w~ile the embankment may have been
providing some incidental protection, it has never been relied on by City staff to
function as a levee during flood flows. I

Initial reports indicate an approximate flow in F01;mtain Creek at the time of failure to be
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4,500 cubic feet per second. This is elevated relatiye to the average flow for this time of
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year, but is nowhere near floodstage for the waterWay. For comparison; the Flood
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