Planning for Watershed Protection, Lake Olathe, Kansas

Abstract

Lake Olathe, located near the city of Olathe in northeast Kansas, is a small water-supply reservoir and recreational resource for local residents. Concern by the community over residential and commercial growth in the Lake Olathe watershed led to an investigation to assess the effects of urbanization on water quality in the watershed. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the city of Olathe and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, with support from the U.S. Environmental Agency, began an investigation in June 2000 to: (1) evaluate sediment deposition and loading to Lake Olathe, (2) determine concentrations and trends for selected chemical constituents in reservoir sediment, and (3) analyze the quality of streamflow to the reservoir and water within the reservoir. The use of reservoir water as a municipal water supply has a history of taste-and-odor problems attributed to seasonal algal blooms. The investigation will determine the chemical and biological in-lake processes that contribute to the algal blooms that lead to taste-and-odor problems. A real-time water-quality monitoring system is being installed in the reservoir watershed to provide advance notice to water-treatment managers when water-quality conditions are likely to cause taste-and-odor problems. Understanding water quality conditions will be useful in efforts to protect the watershed.

Additional information on U.S. Geological Survey watershed processes and modeling can be found at: http://ks.water.usgs.gov/studies/watershed/

Mau, D.P., and Hennessy, Carly., 2001, Planning for watershed protection, Lake Olathe, Kansas [abst.], in Proceedings, The Value of Water, 18th Annual Water and the Future of Kansas Conference, March 13, 2001, Manhattan, Kansas: Manhattan, Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment and Kansas Water Resources Research Institute, p. 31.

To request a paper copy of this proceedings, email: dpmau@usgs.gov