ASABE Technical Library - Abstract
Member and Access Notice
Monitoring the Delaware River Watershed (Kansas) to Locate Contaminant Sources and Assessment System Remediation of Contaminant Impairments
Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org
Citation: Pp. 69-74 in Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Environmental Regulations: Proceedings of the March 11-13, 2002 Conference, (Fort Worth, Texas, USA) 701P0102.(doi:10.13031/2013.7531)Authors: P. L. Barnes and P. K. Kalita
The Delaware River Watershed is located in northeastern Kansas and consists of surface
water in ten sub-watersheds draining 2,893 square kilometers. Approximately 85 percent of the
land area in the basin is cultivated cropland. The Delaware River flows into Perry Reservoir
near Lawrence, Kansas. Releases from the reservoir are used to maintain streamflow in the
Kansas River during low flow periods, contributing 10 percent of the mean flow of the Kansas
River which is used as sources of public drinking water and meet many of the municipal drinking
water supply needs of the urban population in Kansas along the Kansas River.
Elevated concentrations of pesticides in the Delaware River and Perry Reservoir caused
legislative authority to implement the first pesticide management area in Kansas. The purpose of
this management area was to assess the sources of the contamination and potential systems to
reduce the daily loading of those contaminants. Pesticides cause significant problems for
municipal water treatment plants in Kansas, as they are not appreciably removed during
conventional water treatment processes unless activated carbon filtering is used. Pesticides have
been detected during all months of the year with average annual concentrations exceeding
maximum contaminate levels. If high concentration in water is associated with high flow
conditions, then large mass losses of pesticides can flow into these water supplies. This paper
investigated the use of a monitoring program to assess the non-point source of this watershed
contamination. Atrazine application timing was examined for its ability to remediate or prevent
these impairments. The success of this practice has been shown with continued monitoring and
the Delaware River and Perry Reservoir being removed from the Kansas reported TMDL
impaired water bodies.