Areas of Concern

When trash is picked up from your home it is taken to a landfill. If you live in the arid western part of the state you probably have a small county landfill. If you live in eastern Kansas, which has more rain and many large urban communities, you will have a large regional landfill that has to comply with strict environmental regulations to reduce stormwater runoff and leaching into the river. These “Subtitle D” landfills are shown on the atlas. Generally speaking, landfills are structures that are built either on top of the ground or dug into the ground, and are isolated from the surrounding groundwater, air, and stormwater runoff with an impermeable bottom layer and a daily covering with soil. Older landfills and closed landfills near the river may still cause problems, because they were built before modern regulations and need to be carefully monitored.

Years ago every town and city had its own “dump”. The 1,000 or so different dumping sites in the state of Kansas were loosely managed. They accepted a broad range of solid wastes with little or no restrictions, and many of them lacked any kind of seal or liner to prevent pollution from seeping into the groundwater below them. Because there were few restrictions on where you could put a landfill, town dumps were often located in low areas or along river channels. In the 1970s, counties were given new statutory responsibility that required them to make sure that their solid wastes were properly managed according to modern environmental laws and many local dumps were closed. These closed landfills are monitored by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and pose a potential risk to any stream or river nearby. One such example is the old Lawrence landfill, five miles up river from the Bowersock Dam.

Solid waste can be drastically reduced through recycling, composting yard waste, and other measures such as reduction and reuse; many municipalities have facilities for reducing solid waste (see the "more links" section below). One good way of reducing pollution in the Kansas River is to properly dispose of household hazardous waste (don’t pour it down the drain!) and reduce the amount of solid waste that has to be hauled to landfills.

Solid Waste Management has become a lot more complicated since the days of the town dump. In the year 2000 there was over 2.7 million tons of waste deposited in Kansas landfills. Because of the potential for hazardous chemicals to leak out of a landfill into ground water and rivers, landfills today are carefully sited and regulated. In Kansas, the Bureau of Waste Management (BWM) is responsible for issuing permits, inspecting, and enforcing regulations at all solid and hazardous waste management facilities. The number of different types of facilities have also increased since the days of the all purpose town dump; we now have different types of landfills (for example Subtitle D Landfills), hazardous or solid waste combustors, community composting, recycling centers, hazardous waste storage facilities, transfer stations, household hazardous waste facilities, and waste tire processors.

Although most counties in the arid western part Kansas have their own landfill, in densely populated areas such as Kansas City and Johnson County, and in eastern Kansas where there is more stormwater run-off, there are a few large specially constructed landfills that serve large regions. Since 1993, all municipal solid waste landfills must comply with Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). These landfills are commonly referred to as "Subtitle D landfills" or municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills and their locations are mapped in the River Atlas.

Photographs of a Subtitle D Landfill being built in Johnson County and the
Douglas County and Jefferson County Solid Waste Landfill show the many features of these big regional landfills designed to manage run-off and leachate.

Small landfills in the arid western regions of Kansas are exempt from compliance with Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Subtitle D standards for liner and leachate collection. These vary a great deal in their construction and the impact they have on the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) establishes minimum standards for disposal of these wastes and provides state/ local agencies and the general public with guidance and information.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment provides a map of “solid waste flows in Kansas” so that you can see where your garbage goes.
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Water from your home goes into a municipal wastewater facility, where it is treated and discharged into waterways. Treated municipal wastewater and wastewater from industrial facilities are discharged from pipes into streams and rivers. Such “end of pipe” pollution is called “point source pollution” and can negatively impact streams. As authorized by the Clean Water Act, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources (from pipes and ditches) that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States.

There are many pollution source points in the Kaw watershed and you can see them on the River Atlas map. Water pollution degrades rivers, making them unsafe for drinking, fishing, and swimming, sometimes getting so bad that the river can’t even support fish and other aquatic life. Regulating the amount of pollution discharged into a river is the job of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, first created in 1972 with the passage of the Clean Water Act. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) issues NPDE permits in the state of Kansas, under the authority delegated to it by the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Regulating the quality of the water discharged from point sources is complicated, because there may be many sources of a given pollutant, including both point and non-point sources. What goes into the river is an accumulation from all over the watershed. For example, ammonia may come from several municipal sewage treatment plants that discharge into a stretch of the river, but also from non-point sources like the fertilizer applied to golf courses and lawns in your neighborhood, as well as from farms and grazing lands in the watershed. All of these sources contribute to the ammonia in the river. Some way had to be found to regulate all of the sources in a way that reduces the total amount of ammonia that reaches the river. That was the logic behind the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process that was put in place to manage Impaired Waters (surface waters that are too polluted to attain their designated “usage”).



The State of Kansas is required by the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972 to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads for rivers, lakes and other surface waters that have been found to be impaired; in 1995, the Kansas Natural Resource Council and the Sierra Club filed a complaint against the EPA, which compelled it to enforce Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act by establishing TMDLs. Since the state had lead responsibility for the TMDL process it intervened, and a settlement was reached in1998. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has been working with EPA ever since to survey streams and rivers, determine what “uses” are possible, and create plans for how the pollutants will be regulated to attain the desired useage for each stream and river in the state.

According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment:
Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) are quantitative objectives and strategies needed to achieve water quality standards. The water quality standards constitute the goals of water quality adequate to fully support designated uses of streams, lakes, and wetlands. The process of developing TMDLs determines:
• The pollutants causing water quality impairments
• The degree of deviation away from applicable water quality standards
• The levels of pollution reduction or pollutant loading needed to attain achievement of water quality standards
• Corrective actions, including load allocations, to be implemented among point and nonpoint sources in the watershed affecting the water quality limited water body
• The monitoring and evaluation strategies needed to assess the impact of corrective actions in achieving TMDLs and water quality standards
• Provisions for future revision of TMDLs based on those evaluations
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When you turn on the tap to get a glass of water chances are that your water comes from a public water supply system. In Kansas, a public water supply system, in contrast to a private well, is defined as a "system for delivery to the public of piped water for human consumption that has at least 10 service connections or regularly serves at least 25 individuals daily at least 60 days out of the year." These systems are regulated by the state for safe and pathogen-free drinking water. Many communities In the Kaw watershed use river water, which is treated by the municipal system and then delivered to your home.

Annual drinking water reports for Kansas municipalities

Now Public Water Supplies aren’t really “an area of concern” like the other things on the map…but it is important to know where your water comes from and what potential sources of pollution are upstream of your water supply, so we have included them on the map. Remember the old adage, “we all live downstream.” Nowhere is this more true than when talking about where your drinking water comes from.

The water you use for drinking, cooking, and bathing comes from the Kansas River, its tributaries and reservoirs. It is piped to a water treatment plant, where chlorine is added, and the safety of the water for human use is checked, then it travels through pipes to your home. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment regulates all public water supply systems in the state, more than 1,086 public water supply systems including municipalities, rural water districts, and privately owned systems. In the State of Kansas, a public water supply system is defined as a "system for delivery to the public of piped water for human consumption that has at least 10 service connections or regularly serves at least 25 individuals daily at least 60 days out of the year."
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The Kansas River has been commercially mined (dredged) for sand and gravel since the early 1900's. Past dredging activities are documented to have caused significant damage to riverbed, habitat, and water quality. Currently the Army Corps of Engineer has permitted 10 in-river dredge operations on the Kansas River down from 18 permitted in 1996. The Friends of the Kaw have been active participants in the ongoing debate about the pros and cons of dredging in the Kansas River for over 15 years. Please go to our main dredging page for more information about dredging and how you can get involved.
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Fish Advisory Brochure

Air borne pollutants from coal-fired power plants are a major source of atmospheric mercury, which comes from combustion of coal. Atmospheric mercury accumulates in lakes and rivers, where it enters the food chain. Higher concentrations of mercury have been found in fish caught near power plants. Large predatory fish, like largemouth bass, striped bass, and walleye have been found to have the highest levels of mercury, because mercury concentrates as you move up the food chain. The US Environmental Protection Agency has issued a warning for mercury in fish. You can learn more about this by going to the Friends of the Kaw Fish Advisory Brochure and by clicking on the “health advisory” section of the River Atlas for more links.





Most of the electricity you use is produced by coal-fired power plants that are built along the Kansas River and its tributaries. There’s a good reason for this; a lot of water is required to produce energy. According to the Department of Energy, thermoelectric power plants account for daily withdrawals of about 136,000 million gallons of freshwater, second only to withdrawals for irrigation.

Coal-fired power plants affect the Kansas River in two different ways; first by using water and discharging wastewater into the river, and second, by discharging pollutants into the air which can settle back to earth and wash into the river. Wastewater discharge into the river is regulated as a point source by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), under the authority of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. But in addition to chemical pollutants in the wastewater, the river can also be affected by temperature changes, since coal-fired power plants may heat the water to a higher temperature than the river.
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Fish Advisory Brochure

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) issued a warning on January 8, 2007 that you do not eat bottom-feeding fish such as channel catfish caught in the Kansas River from Lawrence (below Bowersock Dam) downstream to Eudora at the confluence of the Wakarusa River. Bottom-feeding fish in this reach of the river have been found to have unacceptably high PCB levels. This advisory will remain in effect until further notice.

Also, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a national fish consumption advisory for mercury based on nationwide average mercury levels in fish sampled by their program. EPA recommends eating no more than one 8-ounce serving per week of non-commercial (locally caught) fish. Women who are pregnant or breast-feeding should avoid eating large-sized predatory fish such as largemouth bass, or consult their physician.

You may have seen signs along the Kansas River warning you about not eating the fish you catch in the river. Unfortunately many of these signs are a decade or more old and the information may not be as current as it should be. You can get the most recent information from the Friends of the Kaw fish advisory brochure and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Each year the Kansas Department of Health and Environment collects fish from locations all around Kansas to analyze tissues for levels of chemicals that are potentially dangerous to human health. If any samples exceed the EPA standards for harmful chemicals they issues a warning for the types of fish (bottom feeders, predatory fish, and so on) and bodies of water (certain stretches of the river, certain lakes) that are potentially contaminated.

On January 8, 2007 KDHE issued its annual health advisory. The good news is that things have gotten better on the Kansas River since 2006, and there is no longer a fish consumption advisory for Wyandotte County. An advisory for PCB contamination in bottom feeding fish (carp, blue catfish, channel catfish, flathead catfish, freshwater drum, bullheads, sturgeons, buffalos, carpsuckers and other sucker species) is still in place for the Kaw from Lawrence (below Bowersock Dam) downstream to Eudora at the confluence of the Wakarusa River. Bottom-feeding fish pick up contaminants from the sediment as well as through feeding on bottom dwelling organisms such as insects that live in the sediment. Chemicals like PCB’s tend to accumulate in this part of the river.

Friends of the Kaw provides suggestions on how to handle fish caught in the Kansas River in our Fish Advisory Brochure.

In addition, there is a national advisory issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for mercury contamination in large-sized predatory fish such as largemouth bass. The EPA recommends that you follow the guidance of local fish consumption advisories issued by agencies such as KDHE. In Kansas there is an advisory issued for the main stem of the Blue River from U.S. 69 Highway to the Kansas/Missouri state line ( Johnson County). More information about how to handle fish caught in the Kansas River can be found in our Fish Advisory Brochure.
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Have you ever seen abandoned factories and old storage tanks downtown? Like the ones near the Kaw and Missouri Rivers in Kansas City? Are there closed gas stations or old dumps in your neighborhood? They can be a real eyesore. They can also be a source of pollution and a risk to your health. And no one wants to deal with them, that's why they just sit there, creating blighted neighborhoods and threatening the health of our watershed. But sometimes the land can be cleaned up enough to make it safe to build shopping centers or business parks, or at least paved over as parking lots or used for wildlife habitat.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has programs that help cities and states clean up these old blighted areas and make them into something more useful and healthy.

EPA Treatment sites are places where past activities have left toxic chemicals that require remediation to make them safe places for people to begin using again. After remediation some sites are still unsafe for building homes, and future use may be limited to specific activities that restrict physical contact with the soil, such as paving over an area to create a parking lot. EPA Treatment Sites include areas known to be contaminated (usually groundwater), areas undergoing remediation, and permitted hazardous waste treatment facilities. Some of them are included in the Superfund clean-up program.

There are several different programs that address different types of clean-up problems:

• Brownfield sites are real properties, the expansion, development, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

• Federal Facility sites are properties operated by the United States Government that contain environmental contamination from unexploded ordnance, radioactive waste, or other hazardous substances.

• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Sites are places where the
past and present activities at have sometimes resulted in releases of hazardous waste and hazardous constituents into soil, ground water, surface water, sediments, and air; requiring the investigation and cleanup, or remediation, of these hazardous releases.

• Superfund sites are uncontrolled or abandoned sites or properties where hazardous waste or other contamination is located, possibly affecting local ecosystems or people. Superfund sites can include properties on the National Priorities List, as well as removal action sites.

• Underground storage tank sites are sites that contain contamination from petroleum products or CERCLA hazardous substances that were released from underground storage tanks.

• State sites are contaminated sites not addressed by U.S EPA through its regulatory authorities under CERLA and RCRA, but are instead managed by States rather than by EPA or through EPA programs.
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