PROJ02181

• Contract/PO #: FS0014X
• Contractor Name: Southern High Plains Ground Water Management DistrictSouthern High Plains Ground Water Management Di
• Contract Type: Loan
• Water District: 0
• County: Baca
• County: Prowers
• County: Las Animas
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Report

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The MWE report identified a number of recommendations that should be pursued by the
District to further assess the status of the District's ground-water resources. At the
District's annual meeting on January 10, 2000, the District membership voted to accept
the recommendations in the report and to pursue additional studies of the District's
ground-water resources. MWE was subsequently contracted by the District to assess
the hydrogeology and water use in the District. This report addresses the finding of this
second investigation.

2.3 PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS
The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) initially investigated the geology and ground-water
resources of Baca County in 1954 (McLaughlin). This study was followed in 1967 by the
above-referenced ground-water resources investigation by Beck and Associates. The
Colorado Division of Water Resources monitored ground-water levels in the Basin
beginning in 1987 and has published annual monitoring data (Roberts and others, 1990
to 2000). The USGS published a report in 1999 documenting the water-level changes
from 1980 to 1997 and saturated thickness from 1996 to 1997 in the High Plains aquifer
(McGuire and Fischer). The Kansas Geological Survey has conducted a number of
ground-water use and water-level studies in southwest Kansas pertaining to the Dakota
aquifer (Macfarlane, et aI., 1993, 1995, and 1999). Each of these studies were reviewed
and relied upon for the Phase-1 investigation and report.

2.4 METHODS OF INVESTIGATION
In addition to a review of the published reports described above, selected well logs and
construction records kept in the official files at the State Engineer's Office and published
by the USGS (McLaughlin, 1954) were evaluated. These records were used to define
the hydrogeologic character of the aquifer system in the District and to create geologic
cross-sections and maps that are presented and described in this report. A brief field
review led by Max Smith, District board member, and accompanied by MWE team
members was conducted on July 10-11, 2000. Landsat satellite images from 1989 and
1999 were obtained to visually compare the change in land use and irrigation methods in
the District over this ten-year period.

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