2/23/2009

By DUANE SCHRAG

Salina Journal

RUSSELL -- Wilson Lake has for years been considered too salty for municipal use, but increasing pressure on other water supplies in central Kansas is prompting some officials to take another look at Wilson. Now the Kansas Water Office is considering buying a water storage right in the lake so that it could reserve water it plans to sell to users.

A public meeting to share current thinking has been set for 4:30 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the AmericInn in Russell.

Among the options being explored is raising the so-called "normal" pool elevation by two feet.

"If things went the right way, we'd try to get a reservation right," said Earl Lewis, assistant director of the Kansas Water Office.

The city of Russell has for decades been scrambling to secure adequate water. In addition to the water from its well field and Big Creek, the city also gets water from Kanopolis Lake.

The city of Salina has also been searching for a long-term water supply. It relies entirely on the Smoky Hill River for water, which flows out of Kanopolis Lake.

In 2002 the Water Office purchased half the storage capacity in Kanopolis and has since concluded that the lake "safe yield" is 6.5 million gallons a day. The Water Office has received applications far in excess of that -- the city of McPherson alone has requested up to 10 million gallons a day. Just what the safe yield of Wilson Lake would be is not clear. Lewis said the state would probably not draw more than 9 million gallons a day. A study by the Kansas Water Office in 2004 estimated that Wilson Lake could yield 29 million gallons a day, but data from the U.S. Geological Survey suggests that figure is far too high.

The Kansas Water Office measures a lake's yield by simulating its performance during a drought equivalent to the one experienced between 1952 and 1957. That was the second driest period of the 20th century. According to state regulations, a lake's yield is the amount of water that could be withdrawn daily throughout a similar six-year drought without completely emptying the lake.

In arriving at the 29 million gallon a day figure, the Water Office estimated that flow on the Saline River has decreased by only 17 percent since the 1950s.

However, flow during 1952-57 was significantly higher than it is today, even though conditions now are substantially wetter than they were during that drought.

Direct comparisons are impossible, since the gauge that measured flow back then has disappeared -- the location was submerged when Wilson Lake was formed in 1964.

However, flow at the USGS gauge on the Saline River due north of Russell, adjusted for the fact that it is several miles upstream (Cedar and Paradise creeks flow into the Saline below the gauge but above Wilson Lake), shows that in the six-year period from 2003-2008, less than half as much water flowed on the Saline as did during the 1950s drought.

Lake records show the lake level is usually below the "normal" elevation of 1,516 feet above sea level, and rarely reaches 1,518, the new normal that is being considered.

Since 1965, the lake level has been at or above 1,516 feet only 27 percent of the time. It has been at or above 1,518 feet only 4.5 percent of the time.

During only one year - 1993 - has the lake level remained at or above 1,518 for more days than it was below.

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