Saline Ground-Water Discharge to the Smoky Hill River between Salina and Abilene, Central Kansas

摘要

Saline water discharges from the alluvium into the Smoky Hill and Solomon Rivers near Salina, Kansas, at about 32 cubic feet per second. Chloride concentrations at base flow increased about 800 milligrams per liter in the Smoky Hill River and 550 milligrams per liter in the Solomon River during 1976-77. The source of the saline water is the underlying Wellington aquifer, a zone of dissolution, subsidence, and collapse that occurs along the eastern margin of the Wellington Formation. Locally brine from the aquifer moves upward through collapse structures in the confining layer at the base of the alluvium. The brine discharge ranges from 0.3 to 0.8 cubic foot per second, and the chloride load ranges from 150 to 370 tons per day. Results from a mathematical model of the flow system indicated that recharge from periodic flooding, as in 1973, was sufficient to reverse the normal (1976-77) hydraulic gradient between aquifers.