Finding water down below can be hit or miss

Water. It's essential to all of us. But pollution and limited resources threaten our water supplies, and a confusing web of entities controls who gets water and how much. The Herald's exclusive, six-part series examines important water issues facing Franklin County.

One of the most important factors concerning water in Franklin County is something you don't see.

Thick, nearly glutinous layers of clay shales, limestone rock and coal underlay most of the soil in Franklin County, forming a thick, nearly impermeable, floor below your feet that slopes down to the west and northwest.

The whole bedrock complex is called Pennsylvanian and it was deposited here about 300 million years ago, Rex Buchanan, of the Kansas Geological Survey, said.

And those layers virtually dominate everything that happens hydrologically in most parts of Franklin County, according to Buchanan and other experts.

Those people who grow crops in the county -- a key part of the Franklin County economy -- are well aware of the layers, which are relatively shallow, Darren Hibdon, Franklin County Extension ag agent said.

Although Franklin County is in east central Kansas, which sees relatively frequent rains, the layers of clay means that rain doesn't stay long in the top soil, evaporating and drying the soil more quickly, he said.

And heavy rains tend to run off rather than stay in the ground, he said.

As a result, for optimum crop growth, Franklin County must have rain once every 10 days or two weeks, Hibdon said.

The clay layers mean that traditional septic systems won't work as well in the county, Larry Walrod, county planning director, whose office regulates septic systems, said.

Where septic tanks don't work, rural residents have to resort to more expensive and esthetically-objectionable lagoon systems and other more exotic systems, Walrod said.

The thick clayey layers also means that in most areas of Franklin County, wells aren't much of an option for Franklin County residents and cities, Buchanan said.

"This area isn't known for its ground water supplies," he said.

There is an underground river of gravel and sandstone filled with water, called an aquifer, that flows through northwest Franklin County, he said.

That aquifer has enough water to support Appanoose School, one of the few remaining schools in the area to depending on well water.

"But even that aquifer has been hit or miss when it comes to wells," Buchanan said.

In addition, "alluvial aquifers" -- layers of gravel and sand that roughly follow the Marais des Cygnes River and its tributaries and are recharged by the streams -- provide some ground water that can be tapped by wells in Franklin County, Buchanan said.

Before the state closed its well, the City of Lane drew its water from a well sunk into the alluvial aquifer along Pottawatomie Creek, he said. The city is building a filtration plant that will also it to resume drawing from the well.

Franklin County's situation is the exact opposite of central and western Kansas, which depend on wells sunk into giant aquifers such as the Oglallah Aquifer and the Equus Beds.

"In this area, it's surface water -- all those big lakes like Clinton Lake, John Redmond, Melvern and Pomona and the streams," he said.

Depending on surface water imposes its own set of problems including pollution running into lakes and streams and how long the lakes will last as they slowly accumulate deposits of sediment, Charlene Lister, a member of the Marais des Cygnes River Basin Advisory Board, said.

"It's going to be 'The Issue,'" she said.

Buchanan said he's often asked about drilling wells for water.

 "The person says 'I'd love to live out in the country. Should I drill my own well or hook up onto rural water?'" Buchanan said.

"My answer is that they should hook up to rural water if the cost is reasonable. Given that a well would be hit or miss, I wouldn't want to pin my hopes on that.

'... I wouldn't want to bet my long-term water supply on a well."