Kansas Geological Survey, Public Information Circular (PIC) 15
Next Page--Water
Kansas Geological Survey, Public Information Circular (PIC) 15
Next Page--Water
Daniel R. Suchy
Data Resources Library, Kansas Geological Survey
Two of the most important industries in Kansas are agriculture and petroleum. Agriculture, of course, depends on adequate water supplies (both rainfall and ground water) for livestock watering and crop irrigation. In addition, the human population of Kansas is increasing, and water needs for human use are increasing proportionately. Petroleum resources in Kansas have been exploited for many decades, and consequently they are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Because natural resources are not evenly distributed, both water-well drilling and petroleum exploration depend on information gleaned from previously drilled wells. Archival records of water-well and petroleum drilling activities in Kansas are stored in the Data Resources Library of the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), as is other information related to water and petroleum, and they are available for public use. This circular describes the information resources available in the Data Resources Library and how they can be used.
In 1975, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) began requiring that records be submitted for every water well drilled in the state of Kansas. These records are initially submitted to KDHE. KDHE keeps copies for their own use, but the original forms are forwarded to the KGS Data Resources Library, where they are stored and made available to the public. In a similar manner, completion forms and geophysical logs for oil and gas wells are initially submitted to the Kansas Corporation Commission, but subsequently they come to the KGS Data Resources Library, where they are stored permanently. All of these records and other information about Kansas geology and water and petroleum resources-such as drillers' logs, scout cards, strip logs, and plugged well information-are available to the public at the KGS Data Resources Library (fig. 1).
Figure 1--Data Resources Library at the Kansas Geological Survey.
Kansas Geological Survey, Public Outreach
Web version October 1999
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/pic15/pic15_1.html