The Wichita River Basin in northwest Texas fig. The drainage area above Lake Kemp fig. The Wichita River Basin is characterized by rolling plains and prairie with an average annual β90 rainfall of Cattle grazing and agriculture are predominant industries outside the Wichita Falls city limits.
One of the earliest oil fields in Texas, the Electra oil field, is in the basin; although some oil is still being produced, oil field activity has decreased from the boom years of the sβ30s. Water quality in the Wichita River Basin is influenced by salt springs in the upper reaches of the basin that contribute highly saline water to the Wichita River base flow.
The salt springs have been assigned area numbers fig. The effectiveness of control structures installed by the USACOE at reducing high salinity loads to Lake Kemp downstream will be measured by the reduction in chloride and sulfate loads over time.
The goal of the USACOE effort is to reduce salinity loads in the basin to the level that water from the Wichita River can be used as a potable municipal supply, resulting in an important new water-supply resource in this basin of limited good-quality water. This fact sheet presents water-quality and biological data collected at sampling sites in the Wichita River Basin during October 1, βSeptember 30, , by the U. Cooperation in this data-collection effort also was provided by the U.
Water-Quality Assessment. Hourly collection of temperature and specific-conductance data and discrete sampling of specific ions such as chloride and sulfate, combined with hourly discharge readings, allow computation of chloride and sulfate loads table 2. Specific conductance is highly correlated coefficient of determination R 2 greater than 0.
