Groundwater Availability of the Northern High Plains Aquifer in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming

Authors

Steven M. Peterson, U.S. Geological Survey
Jonathan P. Traylor, U.S. Geological Survey
Moussa Guira, U.S. Geological Survey

Date of this Version

2020

Citation

Peterson, S.M., Traylor, J.P., and Guira, M., 2020, Groundwater availability of the Northern High Plains aquifer in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1864, 57 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1864.

Abstract

The Northern High Plains aquifer underlies about 93,000 square miles of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming and is the largest subregion of the nationally important High Plains aquifer. Irrigation, primarily using groundwater, has supported agricultural production since before 1940, resulting in nearly $50 billion in sales in 2012. In 2010, the High Plains aquifer had the largest groundwater withdrawals of any major aquifer system in the United States.Nearly one-half of those withdrawals were from the Northern High Plains aquifer, which has little hydrologic interaction with parts of the aquifer farther south. Land-surface elevation ranges from more than 7,400 feet (ft) near the western edge to less than 1,100 ft near the eastern edge. Major streams primarily flow west to east and include the Big Blue River, Elkhorn River, Loup River, Niobrara River, Republican Riverand Platte River with its two forks—the North Platte River and South Platte River. Population in the Northern High Plains aquifer area is sparse with only 2 cities having a population greater than 30,000.Droughts across much of the area from 2001 to 2007, combined with recent (2004–18) legislation, have heightened concerns regarding future groundwater availability and highlighted the need for science-based water-resource management. Groundwater models with the capability to provide forecasts of groundwater availability and related stream base flows from the Northern High Plains aquifer were published recently (2016) and were used to analyze groundwater avail-ability. Stream base flows are generally the dominant component of total streamflow in the Northern High Plains aquifer, and total streamflows or shortages thereof define conjunctive management triggers, at least in Nebraska. Groundwater availability was evaluated through comparison of aquifer-scale water budgets compared for periods before and after major groundwater development and across selected future fore-casts. Groundwater-level declines and the forecast amount of groundwater in storage in the aquifer also were examined.