Report on the Platte River Basin, Nebraska Level B Study

• Description: related to the Platte River Endangered Species Partnership ‎(aka Platte River Recovery Implementation Program or PRRIP)‎
• State: NE
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 6/1/1976
• Author: Missouri River Basin Commission
• Title: Report on the Platte River Basin, Nebraska Level B Study
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

1 16
GROUND WATER GEOLOGY
The water- bearing formations commonly used
as sources of ground water in the basin are shown
in Figure 7. Because the sand and gravel beds in the
Pleistocene deposits and in the Ogallala Formation
have somewhat similar hydrologic characteristics,
and because the water quality from each is
ordinarily indistinguishable, they are considered in
this report as a single unit called the Pleistocene -
Ogallala aquifer.
Pleistocene - Ogallala aquifers are the most
commonly used sources of ground water because,
as shown in Figure 7, they have the greatest areal
extent of the water- bearing formations in the basin
and the chemical quality of their water usually is
suitable for most purposes. Because these aquifers
are the shallowest water- bearing formations, the
cost of well drilling is less than it would be in deeper
formations and they generally yield more water to
wells than any of the other water- bearing for-
mations in the basin.
Where no Pleistocene - Ogallala aquifers are
present or where they are thin or nearly impervious,
wells can usually be completed in other water -bear-
ing formations. Figure 8 shows the approximate
areas where formations other than the Pleistocene
deposits and the Ogallala Formation may be used
as alternate sources of ground water.
Figure 7
PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS AND OGALLALA FORMATION
■ Pleistocene Deposits. Stream - deposited clay, silt, sand, and E Ogallala Formation. Mostly stream - deposited clay, silt, sand,
silt, and cla and wind and gravel; often cemented with calcium carbonate to form
gravel, glacial deposits of sand, y' siltstone, sandstone, or sandy limestone. Yields large quantities
deposited silt and sand. Yields large quantities to wells in the to wells in most of the Loup Subbasin and in parts of the
Elkhorn, Loup and Lower Platte Subbasi Upper Platte Subbasin Elkhorn and Upper Platte Subbasins.
source of water in the eastern half of the
and locally along the flood plains and terraces of the major - Pleistocene Deposits and Ogallala Formation.
streams in the western half of the subbasin. Locally in the
eastern parts of the Elkhorn and Lower Platte Subbasins the
deposits consist for the most part of clay and clayey sands and Pleistocene Deposits and Ogallala Formation Absent.
the deposits are poor sources of water. ID