Kansas Geological Survey
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| Established | 1889 |
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| Research type | Research and service |
| Address | 1930 Constant Ave. |
| Location | Lawrence, Kansas, US |
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Zip code
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66047 |
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Operating agency
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University of Kansas |
| Website | kgs |
The Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), a research and service division of the University of Kansas, is charged by statute with studying and providing information on the geologic resources of Kansas. The KGS has no regulatory authority and does not take positions on natural resource issues.
Research at the KGS focuses primarily on energy, water, and the environment and addresses natural resource challenges facing the state of Kansas. The KGS also generates new information about the state's geology and develops tools and techniques for studying the state's surface and subsurface through its geophysics and mapping programs. Primary users of this information include local, State, and Federal agencies; oil and gas exploration companies; engineering companies and geotechnical consultants dealing with construction, environmental, and geologic hazard issues; educators; and private citizens wanting to learn more about the state's geology and resources.
The KGS is located in Lawrence on the west campus of the University of Kansas and has a Well Sample Library in Wichita. With a staff of 74 full-time employees and about 30 student employees, the KGS has an annual state-appropriated budget of approximately $5.9 million. Another $11.7 million in grants and contracts was awarded in fiscal year 2012. The KGS reports to the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Kansas and has a 12-member advisory council to provide review and guidance.
The KGS, with industry and government partners, continues a multi-year project to test the safety and efficacy of storing carbon dioxide (CO2)—from industrial processes and other sources—deep underground and also using it to squeeze out trapped oil unreachable by traditional recovery methods. CO2 is a natural and essential component of the atmosphere, but it is also a greenhouse gas—a byproduct of fossil fuels emissions from vehicles and such stationary sources as electric, cement, ethanol, and fertilizer plants—that has been considered a cause of climate change. The KGS-led project has received to date nearly $21.5 million in cooperative agreement funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. This funding has helped support drilling and evaluation of wells in Sumner County south of Wichita, Ellis County north of Hays, and Haskell County northwest of Liberal. The cooperative agreement is the largest ever received by the KGS.
In the summer of 2013, CO2 transported from the Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation's ethanol plant near Colwich will be injected at the KGS Wellington field site in Sumner County for both enhanced oil recovery and CO2 sequestration in the deep Arbuckle saline aquifer. The Arbuckle is a porous rock group that contains saline water unfit for human consumption in that area of the state and is separated from shallower freshwater aquifers by thousands of feet of impermeable rock. This will be the first time CO2 emitted during industrial activities will be captured and injected underground for long-term storage in Kansas. Sequestration of CO2 in saline aquifers is being tested throughout the United States, with a larger test currently underway in Illinois.
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