IRP - A CASE-STUDY FROM KANSAS

Because current supplies will not adequately meet its needs beyond 2010, the city of Wichita, Kan., applied the integrated resource planning (IRP) process to develop a long-term water resource plan. The plan is environmentally, socially, and economically acceptable to the community and holistically uses the city's local water resources on an ''as-available'' basis. Key elements of the plan in addition to water conservation and watershed management are use of trichloroethylene-remediated and high-chloride groundwater, above-base (excess) flow from the Little Arkansas River, expansion of a local wellfield, and recharge of a primary existing water source called the Equus Beds Wellfield. Overpumping by irrigators, industries, and municipalities during the last 40 years caused a drawdown storage volume in the Equus Bed Wellfield, which can hold 100 bil gal of water. Recharging the aquifer replenishes groundwater storage and minimizes flow of chloride-contaminated water into the wellfield.