By Kyle E. Juracek, U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation
Why it matters
For the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in northeast Kansas, having enough water — now and in the future, for people, fish and wildlife — is a basic concern. Soldier Creek runs through the Nation's reservation, making it an important tribal resource. Managing it well, including planning for drought, starts with knowing how the creek has behaved in the past.
The Soldier Creek Basin: tributaries, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Reservation, land use (2011) and the USGS streamgages. Modified from Juracek (2017). USGS.
The basin
- Size: about 334 square miles, in northeast Kansas.
- Tributaries: besides Little Soldier Creek — Crow Creek, South Branch Soldier Creek, James Creek, Dutch Creek, Walnut Creek, Messhoss Creek, Silver Lake Ditch, Halfday Creek and Indian Creek.
- Land: mostly a mix of cropland and grassland (Jin and others, 2013).
- Rain and snow: averaged over the basin, about 35 inches a year for 1951 through 2014 (from PRISM data; Daly and others, 2008) — varying a great deal from year to year, with no apparent long-term trend.
Six streamgages
| USGS streamgage | Near | Drainage area (sq mi) | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06889140 | Soldier | 17 | 1964–1998 |
| 06889160 | Circleville | 49 | 1964–2001 |
| 06889170 | Holton | 61 | 2001–2007 |
| 06889180 | Saint Clere | 80 | 1964–1981 |
| 06889200 | Delia | 157 | 1958–2015 |
| 06889500 | Topeka | 290 | 1936–2015 |
A USGS study (Juracek, 2017) used each gage's full record — daily mean flows from the National Water Information System, collected by standard USGS methods (Turnipseed and Sauer, 2010). For each water year (October 1 to September 30) it computed:
- annual mean streamflow and annual mean base flow;
- mean monthly flow;
- annual peak flow;
- annual minimum flow, as 1-day, 30-day and 90-day means.
Year to year: big swings, no trend
Annual mean streamflow varied widely from year to year, with no pronounced long-term trend. On average, base flow made up about 20 percent of it.
Annual mean streamflow (blue) and base flow (orange) at the Soldier Creek near Topeka gage (06889500). Modified from Juracek (2017). USGS.
Into and out of the reservation: comparing the gage upstream near Circleville with the one downstream near Delia for 1965 to 2000 — the years both have complete records — the creek's flow rose by an average of about 240 percent between them.
Through the year: a spring peak
At all six gages, flow follows the seasons' rainfall:
- Lowest in January, then rising month by month;
- Peak in May or June;
- Falling in July and August;
- a rise in September;
- falling again through October, November and December.
Mean monthly flows over the record at the Topeka gage. Modified from Juracek (2017). USGS.
Floods
Annual peak flows also vary widely with no pronounced long-term trend — but downstream, near Delia and Topeka, the swings apparently grew over the record. At Topeka:
| Peak flows (cubic feet per second) | |
|---|---|
| Before 1965 | about 1,000 to 11,000 |
| After 1965 | about 2,000 to nearly 48,000; over 20,000 in 7 different years |
Peaks are most likely in May and June, and least likely from November through February.
Droughts
The annual minimum flows — 1-day, 30-day and 90-day means — vary widely too, again with no pronounced long-term trend. The 1-day minimum was often at or near zero.
Annual 1-day, 30-day and 90-day mean minimum flows at the Topeka gage. Modified from Juracek (2017). USGS.
The mid-1950s brought one of the worst multiyear droughts in Kansas's recorded history (Paulson and others, 1991), and the Topeka gage caught its effect:
- For 5 years in a row, 1953 to 1957, the 30-day minimum was zero or nearly zero.
- In 1957, the 90-day minimum was zero too.
- From August 17, 1956, to February 1, 1957, the creek at Topeka had no flow at all for 169 days straight.
The lesson for planning: in an extreme drought, Soldier Creek may stop flowing for one to several months at a time.
Sources
Based on Streamflow Conditions Along Soldier Creek, Northeast Kansas, by Kyle E. Juracek, USGS Fact Sheet 2017–3083, prepared in cooperation with the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, U.S. Geological Survey; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The full study is USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2017–5061. The map, table of streamgages, charts and cover photograph are taken from the fact sheet's PDF, which the import had left out; the import had also run several of its paragraphs together, which are restored here from the PDF. The source gives flows in "ft/s"; the unit is cubic feet per second.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from pubs.usgs.gov
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