LAWRENCE, Kan. (WIBW) – A University of Kansas KGS scientist has been given a national award for their groundwater research.
The Universit of Kansas says Jim Butler, senior scientist and geohydrologist at the Kansas Geological Survey, has received the 2020 National Ground Water Association’s M. King Hubbert Award.
KU said the award is the association’s highest scientific honor and is given each year for major scientific or engineering contributions that advance the understanding of groundwater through research, writing, teaching and practical applications.
Butler said his research initiatives focused on the future of irrigated agriculture reliant on groundwater, field methods for obtaining detailed information about aquifer conditions, interpretation fo water level changes in wells, the interaction between groundwater and surface water and the impact of phreatophytes, plants that access and depend on groundwater, on groundwater resources.
“Jim Butler is the recipient of the highest award in the U.S. for an individual working in applied hydrogeology, and he is only the fourth person to receive this honor for work done at a state geological survey,” said KGS Director Rolfe Mandel. “It is very satisfying to know that groundwater research conducted by Jim and his colleagues in the KGS Geohydrology section has been recognized throughout the world for its significance to the discipline as a whole.”
KU said every year KGS and the Division of Water Resources of the Kansas Department of Agriculture measure water levels in almost 1,400 wells to monitor the health of the expansive High Plains aquifer and smaller aquifers. It said the High Plains aquifer is a network of water-bearing rocks underlying parts of eight states and is the main source of water irrigators, industries and municipalities in much of western and central Kansas.
Butler said with his KGS colleagues he developed a new way to use the annual water-level data, as well as data submitted to the state by large-volume water users to learn about the response of aquifers when pumping is reduced to slow declines in groundwater levels.
“I’ve been very fortunate to work with an excellent group of colleagues who are deeply committed to addressing issues of significance to Kansas,” Butler said. “We have strived to make a difference, and it is gratifying to find others feel that we have.”
Butler said in late 2019, he produced a significantly revised edition of his book, “The Design, Performance, and Analysis of Slug Tests,” which is now the standard reference for an economical and dependable method used to obtain the information needed to help assess threats posed by sites of groundwater contamination.
Butler said he has been a member of the KGS Geohydrology section since 1986 and has written or co-written 78 scientific publications, presented 120 invited lectures to scientific and non-technical audiences in 14 countries and worked cooperatively with researchers from other institutions.
According to KU, the National Ground Water Association membership includes over 10,000 scientists, engineers and contractors from all over the U.S. and around the world. It said M. King Hubbert was the author of “Theory of Ground-Water in Motion,” where he presented some key principles of groundwater movement that have been the basis for many advances since the book was published in 1940.
KU said KGS is a nonregulatory research and service division of the school and researchers study and give information on the state’s geological resources and hazards such as groundwater, oil and natural gas, rocks and minerals and earthquakes.
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