Ground-Water Resources of Mississippian and Older Rocks in Bourbon, Crawford, Cherokee, and Labette Counties, Southeastern Kansas

Abstract

Large quantities of ground water suitable for domestic and industrial uses may be obtained from drilled wells in an area of about 2,000 square miles located in Bourbon, Crawford, Cherokee, and Labette counties, Kansas. These counties adjoin the eastern and southern state boundaries and they comprise part of the mining district in southwestern Missouri, southeastern Kansas, and northeastern Oklahoma that is known as the Tri-State area. The water wells of this region that penetrate Mississippian or older rocks are artesian wells in which the water is under sufficient hydrostatic pressure to flow or rise several hundred feet above the point in the well at which the water is encountered. The beds of rock that are the chief reservoirs for ground water lie at a minimum depth of 300 feet and a maximum depth of 1,700 feet beneath the surface in southeastern Kansas, and crop out at the surface in south-central Missouri, along the axis of the Ozark Uplift, where water enters these beds from local rainfall. The chief ground-water zones in the Tri-State district are, in ascending order, Lamotte sandstone (Upper Cambrian), Roubidoux sandstone (Lower Ordovician), Jefferson City-Cotter dolomites (Lower Ordovician), and Boone limestone (Mississippian, Lower Carboniferous). Most of the water for domestic use is pumped from the Roubidoux sandstone. Some of the cities in the district consume about 2,000,000 gallons of water per day. A pumping test in Cherokee county, Kansas, indicated that 8,000,000 gallons of water a day was pumped from the Reeds Spring formation (Mississippian). The dissolved mineral content of the ground water in this district increases down the dip of the rock formations, that is, the solid matter (in parts per million) increases with the distance the ground water migrates through the rock.