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Shrinking reservoirs raise concerns for water storage
OZAWKIE, Kan. (AP)--Western Kansas has some water-supply problems, largely because of an underground aquifer that is being depleted faster than it can recharge. But in eastern Kansas, where the majority of the state's population lives and where most people rely on surface water to fill their glasses, pools and fishing holes, the water problem rests with the federal reservoirs. More than 60 percent of Kansans get their water from these reservoirs, many of which were built in the 1960s with a design life of 50 to 100 years. But now, thanks to agriculture, urban sprawl and other footprints of civilization, some of the reservoirs are being threatened by excess sediment, which is mud, granules and other deposits swept up along the banks of rivers and streams that lead into the reservoirs. "We're in the process right now--'we' meaning society--of trying to figure out what to do with these aging structures," said Jerry Bernard, national geologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service in Washington. "If you don't take care of the reservoirs, then you have a condition where they might become hazardous," he said. "Just because a reservoir has reached the 50-year design life doesn't mean that's it. But over time it could create a hazardous situation." Date: 7/26/07
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