AWQUA: Aquifer Water Quality Assessment for Kansas

Two people sampling groundwater from a well.

Cities, towns, businesses, farms, and homeowners across the state of Kansas rely on groundwater, making it a vital natural and economic resource. Although we are continuing to develop a science-based understanding of water availability throughout the region, we lack long-term, systematic groundwater quality data. We do know, however, that contamination of groundwater in multiple locations threatens human health and livelihoods. Localized issues of groundwater quality have emerged across the state in the past several decades from both natural and anthropogenic sources, leaving communities and domestic well owners vulnerable. Examples include nitrate contamination in the Great Bend Prairie aquifer and uranium contamination in the Upper Arkansas River corridor. As a matter of public health and environmental protection, it is imperative to understand both the quantity and quality of groundwater now and into the future.  

To address this pressing need, KGS is building a comprehensive groundwater quality monitoring and research program that will serve the state of Kansas and advance our understanding of groundwater sustainability.

This program will do the following:

  • Collect baseline chemistry data that will identify areas of the state where groundwater quality is already at risk or failing to meet health standards and allow detection of future deterioration
  • Create a public data platform that integrates groundwater quality data across agencies, links with existing KGS water databases, and enables analysis of groundwater quality and quantity

Analysis of these data will help Kansans identify ways to protect and manage water resources, including actions to safeguard our aquifers from future decline, while providing information to state and local governments for managing public water supply wells and domestic wells.

As part of this program, KGS will sample groundwater wells across the state to measure groundwater chemistry. If you are interested in participating and potentially having your domestic or irrigation well tested, please provide your contact information below. (Please note, participants will be selected based on statistically determined spatial distribution of locations. Not all registrations will be selected.)