NATIONAL WATER-QUALITY ASSESSMENT PROGRAM HIGH PLAINS REGIONAL GROUND-WATER STUDY INITIAL LIAISON MEETING AS PART OF THE HIGH PLAINS SYMPOSIUM

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma March 12, 1999

Below are the minutes of the first (kickoff) Liaison Meeting of the US Geological Survey's High Plains Regional Ground Water NAWQA (National Water-Quality Assessment Program) study held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, March 12, 1999.

*** MINUTES***

8:00 AM-Opening Remarks

Kathy Peter, Oklahoma District Chief, welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked that we introduce ourselves and say a little bit about why we're here.

8:15 AM---Overview of High Plains Regional Ground Water Study

Kevin Dennehy, Project Manager of the High Plains study proceeded to discuss several general topics that included: an explanation of why the NAWQA Program is now looking at water quality in the High Plains aquifer; the need for and expectations of a Liaison Committee; and stated the High Plains NAWQA project's desire to cooperate and collaborate with others doing water-quality investigations in the same areas.

Kevin also asked the audience to give him feedback on what they saw were the primary water-quality issues in the area and did that list differ from the list NAWQA compiled as part of their inventory. Audience responses included the following:

Water-Quality Issues and Concerns

• CAFO's, especially dairy farms in eastern NM and their impact on drinking water supplies
  
• CAFO's in Nebraska and their impacts on drinking water supplies
  
• Salinity and pH in ground water and their impacts on crops
  
• CAFO's in Kansas from a non-point source-contamination standpoint
  
• Effect of bedrock sources (salinity) on the water quality in the High Plains aquifer
  
• Effects of nutrients and pesticides from point and non-point agricultural and livestock sources on ground-water resources
  
• Degradation of ground-water resources from human activities over the shallow aquifer in the Oklahoma panhandle
  
• Quantity and quality of ground-water resources within the High Plains aquifer in Texas
  
• Uncertainty of how water quality changes with depth
  
• Quality of irrigation return flows and their impacts on the ground-water resource
  
• Water quality unknowns with respect to the deep vadose zone
  
• Playas and water quality in the central and southern High Plains
  
• Abandoned wells, especially in Kansas and Oklahoma

The issues and concerns mentioned by the audience were in close agreement with our original list. Additional, the priority assigned to each item seems to also agree. The list of High Plains water-quality issues and concerns inventoried by USGS can be viewed on the High Plains NAWQA home page under "Significant Findings" at URL: http://webserver.cr.usgs.gov/nawqa/hpgw/HPGW_home.html.

Kevin ended this section by giving an overview of the activities that were planned for FY99 and introduced what activities are being discussed for FY00. He mentioned that because of the tight timelines the FY99 studies are pretty well set. However, there may be time to discuss some alternatives to the activities planned for FY00 if some compelling arguments were offered by interested agencies.

8:45 AM

-Presentation given by David Litke, USGS, on the progress made to date on the retrospective analysis of existing ground-water-quality data from the High Plains aquifer.

9:15 AM

-Presentation given by Sharon Qi, USGS, describing how the High Plains NAWQA project plans to manage water quality and ancillary data gather during the investigation. Furthermore, she discussed how the World Wide Web (WWW) would be used to disseminate study data and results to a wide audience.

9:45 AM-Break

10:00 AM

-Presentation given by Bret Bruce, USGS, describing the design and approach for conducting Sub-unit Surveys (SUS) that document the broad-scale assessment of ground-water quality in the central High Plains Ogallala Formation and the Quaternary deposits (southeastern Kansas) in FY99.

10:30 AM

-Presentation given by Peter McMahon, USGS, in which he explained the need for a reconnaissance sampling effort in the central High Plains Ogallala Formation to determine if ground water found at the water table was less than 50 years old. Additionally, Peter gave an overview of the design and approach to be taken this summer as part of the Regional Transect Study along the Kansas/Oklahoma stateline in the central High Plains.

11:00 AM-Group Discussion

Kevin asked attendees if they had any suggestions as to the best way to hold Liaison Meetings in the High Plains that would reach as many people as possible. The suggestions offered are as follows:

• Hold regional meeting and discuss the work/results to those interested in the immediate area.
  
• Piggyback on existing meetings across the High Plains in an attempt to reach larger audiences like: Crop Consultants meeting, Lubbock, TX; Water & Its Future in Kansas; Central Plains Irrigation Annual Association Meeting, Garden City, KS (2/00); Mid-West Ground Water Association Meeting, Minneapolis, MN (2000); Ground Water Management Districts Association Meeting (2000). No final decision was made, however the group thought that a combination of presentations given to local groups and finding a larger existing conference to piggyback with would perhaps work the best.

I will look into next year's Central Plains Irrigation Association meeting as a possible candidate for the large meeting presentation to be held in FY00. In the interim, we will speak to local agencies and groups about the High Plains NAWQA when we're invited and when we're able.

LIST OF ATTENDEES

High Plains NAWQA Initial Liaison Meeting
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
March 12, 1999

Name                  Organization                   Location

Roy Sturgeon, Jr.     Plant Health Services          Stillwater, OK

Virginia McGuire      US Geological Survey           Lincoln, NE

Roy Cruz              US Geological Survey           Albuquerque, NM

Rick Kochenower       Oklahoma State University      Goodwell, OK

Diane Coe             Southwest Kansas Groundwater   Garden City, KS
                      Management District

P. Allen Macfarlane   Kansas Geological Survey       Lawrence, KS

Robert Buddemeier     Kansas Geological Survey       Lawrence, KS

William Wolfinbarger  Sac and Fox Nation             Stroud, OK

Ken Hollett           USGS-Office of Ground Water    Reston, VA

Ken Collins           US Fish & Wildlife Service     Tulsa, OK

Ivan James            US Geological Survey           Denver, CO

Jayne May             US Geological Survey           Austin, TX

Bill Andrews          US Geological Survey           Oklahoma City, OK

Kathy Peter           US Geological Survey           Oklahoma City, OK

Mahbub Alam           Kansas State University        Garden City, KS

Dean Topliff          Farmer                         Goodland, KS

Leon Silkman          High Plains Pilot Project      Burlington, CO

Margaret Townsend     Kansas Geological Survey       Lawrence, KS

Marios Sophocleous    Kansas Geological Survey       Lawrence, KS

Worth Jeffus          Farmer                         Guymon, OK

Peter McMahon         US Geological Survey           Denver, CO

Kevin Dennehy         US Geological Survey           Denver, CO

Sharon Qi             US Geological Survey           Denver, CO

Bret Bruce            US Geological Survey           Denver, CO

Dave Litke            US Geological Survey           Denver, CO

Mike Pope             US Geological Survey           Lawrence, KS

Mark Becker           US Geological Survey           Oklahoma City, OK

Martin Schneider      US Geological Survey           Woodward, OK

Robert Fabian         OK Water Resources Board       Oklahoma City, OK

Alan Burns            US Geological Survey           Denver, CO