Keith Sebelius Lake | |
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Location | Norton County, Kansas |
Coordinates | 39°48′15″N 99°55′55″W / 39.80417°N 99.93194°WCoordinates: 39°48′15″N 99°55′55″W / 39.80417°N 99.93194°W |
Type | Reservoir |
Primary inflows | Prairie Dog Creek |
Primary outflows | Prairie Dog Creek |
Catchment area | 715 sq mi (1,850 km2) |
Basin countries | United States |
Managing agency | U.S. Bureau of Reclamation |
Built | December 1961 |
First flooded | October 1964 |
Max. length | 9.5 miles (15.3 km) |
Surface area | 2,181 acres (8.83 km2) |
Max. depth | 42 feet (13 m) |
Water volume |
Full: 34,510 acre·ft (42,570,000 m3) Current (Nov. 2015): 8,996 acre·ft (11,096,000 m3) |
Shore length1 | 32 miles (51 km) |
Surface elevation |
Full: 2,304 ft (702 m) Current (Nov. 2015): 2,287 ft (697 m) |
Settlements | Norton |
References | |
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. |
Keith Sebelius Lake, formerly known as Norton Reservoir, is a man-made reservoir on Prairie Dog Creek in northwest Kansas. Built and managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, it is used for flood control, irrigation, recreation, and local water supply.Prairie Dog State Park is located on its shore.
The effects of a 1935 flash flood of the Republican River and its tributaries, including Prairie Dog Creek, led the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to include the creek in its plans for flood control. The Flood Control Act of 1944 approved and the Flood Control Act of 1946 authorized development of a reservoir on the creek as part of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program. Construction of Norton Dam began in December 1961, and the initial storage of water in Norton Reservoir started in October 1964.
In March 1958, the nearby community of Norton, Kansas secured a contract with the U.S. government to receive 1,600 acre-feet of water annually. In 1963, the Kansas state government granted the community a water right to that amount of storage in the reservoir. Norton began to use the reservoir as a municipal water supply in September 1965.
In 1981, the U.S. Congress renamed the reservoir Keith Sebelius Lake after retiring U.S. Representative and Norton native Keith Sebelius.
Keith Sebelius Lake is located at 38°48′15″N 99°55′55″W / 38.80417°N 99.93194°W (39.8041721, -99.9320688) at an elevation of 2,306 feet (703 m). It lies in northwest Kansas in the High Plains region of the Great Plains. The reservoir is located entirely within Norton County.