Tag: water conservation

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GMD Groundwater Legislature LEMA Ogallala Policy Water Legislation

House Overwhelmingly Passes GMD and Water Funding Bills, on to Senate

Here is a summary of the House’s consideration of two of the most significant water bills to be heard in the last 10 years: one that significantly expands state funding of water infrastructure and a second which requires the state’s groundwater management districts (GMDs) to act to address groundwater declines.

HB 2279, the GMD Bill 

In my last news article a month ago, I reported on the House’s consideration of HB 2279 which would require Groundwater Management District (GMD) to provide annual reporting and to identify areas of concern and to work with their waterusers to develop “action plans” to address the groundwater declines in those areas of concern. The bill included a provision allowing the Chief Engineer to take action if he/she found the action plan inadequate. 

My article also outlined the testimony I planned to offer in support of the bill, but recommending a number of improvements. Link to my final testimony: http://kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/committees/ctte_h_water_1/misc_documents/download_testimony/ctte_h_water_1_20230209_01_testimony.html    

At the committee’s Feb. 9 hearing, all testified in support of the bill, including Kansas Farm Bureau and the Kansas Livestock Association, except Southwest Kansas GMD No. 3 and Southwest Kansas Irrigators, both whom opposed the bill.  Like mine, much of the supporting testimony provided suggestions for improving the bill, many echoed my suggestions.

The committee leadership put forward an amended version of the bill, which it passed overwhelmingly on February 17. Here is a link to the bill’s supplemental note with an expanded summary of the amended bill’s provisions, a summary of testimony and resulting amendments in committee.  

The amended bill took my specific suggestion for defining “priority areas of concern”, as a minimum, to include areas with less than 50 years of remaining usable life. This will focus initial action where most needed, as significant areas within western Kansas GMDs still have significant remaining life. See the map below from my testimony (and its explanation in there).  In short, the red areas have less than 25 years of water left, the darker orange has 25-50 years remaining. Those are the areas that need focus within southwest Kansas (as northwest and west central Kansas are in LEMAs). About 25% of Southwest Kansas GMD 3 has less than 50 years left (but there are large parts of GMD 3, esp. the southern tier counties that have more than 50 years left with some years over 100 years.  But it is past time to act in the critical areas.  

KGS' Estimated Usable Life Map with Q-stable values 2022

The amended bill did NOT include my suggestion for a clear definition of adequacy. Despite this, I continue to support the bill and believe it a real step forward in requiring GMDs that have not done so to seriously look at the Ogallala problem where action is most urgently needed and engage the waterusers in those areas on how to address the problem.  As I have been telling reporters in recent weeks, the GMD Act has a mission and power, but no specific water management goals. This changes that.

The amended bill was considered by the full House on February 23, and passed on a vote of 116-6. It is now in Senate, waiting to be heard by the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. While no hearing is yet scheduled; hopefully this will occur next week, as all bills need to be out of their respective committee by March 24.

HB 2302, the Water Funding bill

I have not weighed in on this bill as it is not in my area of expertise and it had plenty of conferees supporting the bill. In many ways, this bill is more significant to the State’s future than the GMD bill above.  If passed, it would increase dedicated state fundings to water projects from the current $8 million/year to approximately $50 million/year. 

Once again, the amended bill passed out of committee with overwhelming support as well as the full House (the vote was 119-3). This is quite significant, as a similar effort to expand water funding through a dedicated part of the state sales tax was attempted in 2017 and got nowhere.

Here is a link to the amended bill that passed the committee and full House:  http://kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/hb2302_01_0000.pdf.  

Here is a link to a supplemental note of the bill with more details:  http://kslegislature.org/li/b2023_24/measures/documents/supp_note_hb2302_01_0000.pdf.

Here is my brief summary of the supplemental note’s summary:  

The note’s “Brief”: “HB 2302, as amended, would establish funding for the State Water Plan and water infrastructure projects, create the Water Technical Assistance Fund and the Water Projects Grant Fund, authorize the Kansas Water Office (KWO) to provide grants and adopt rules and regulations to establish criteria for grants, and authorize distribution to the State Water Plan Fund (SWPF) of a portion of the revenue from the state sales and compensating use tax (sales tax revenue).”

The expanded money for water projects would not come from a tax increase or increased fees but from dedicating 1.231% of the state’s existing sales tax to water projects outlined in the bill (again, boosting dedicated state funding for water projects from approximately $8 million/year to approximately $50 million/year). 

This expanded funding would go toward:

  • Existing State Water Plan Fund priorities 
  • $5 million/year to a Water Technical Assistance Fund
  • $15 million/year to a Water Projects Grant Fund
  • $15 million/year to pay off debt for Milford and Perry Lake reservoirs 
  • To improve salaries of state workers implementing water programs (current salaries are not competitive, resulting in staff shortages, delays in programs, etc).

There are specifics in the bill on where these monies will go, but if passed, there would be significant new money for infrastructure projects for municipalities, with priority to small municipalities. 

This expanded funding would sunset after 5 years, unless the legislature takes action to extend it.

The bill is awaiting consideration by the Senate Agriculture / Natural Resources Committee. Hopefully next week. 

Categories
GMD Groundwater Legislature

House Committee on Water Considers GMD Bill

Before going on to the main subject of this newsletter, one brief aside:

This past week, on Feb. 2, the Chief Engineer held the second hearing required to approve and implement GMD 1’s proposed Four County Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA). No one spoke against the LEMA. In the coming weeks, based on the hearing, the Chief Engineer will issue first an Order of Decision with respect to whether the LEMA should be established per GMD 1’s LEMA Plan. 

HB 2279, Requiring GMDs to develop plans to address Ogallala declines 

This Thursday, on Feb 9, the House Committee on Water (HCOW) will be hearing testimony on HB 2279. Its short title is “Requiring groundwater management districts to submit annual written reports to the legislature and to provide water conservation and stabilization action plans to the chief engineer.”

The provisions are very similar to requirements of Sections 13 and 14 of last year’s so-called Mega-water bill, HB 2686 (2022).  If you are interested, I created a rough comparison of this current version with last year’s, on my web site at: https://kwrconsulting.com/legislation/, under “Bills” and the discussion on HB 2279.

As the short name implies, the bill has two components: annual reporting of GMDs to the Legislature and, more significantly, requirements that GMDs:

  • By July 1, 2024, the GMDs identify areas of concerns and, 
  • Working with their waterusers, and by July 1, 2026 develop and submit to the Chief Engineer “action plans” to address the groundwater declines in the areas of concern, and 
  • If a GMD fails to develop an adequate plan, the Chief Engineer is authorized to take action. 

In my presentation to the HCOW on Jan. 12, I supported the provision of last year’s bill on GMD reporting and especially these requirements to identifying areas of concern, plans to address, and for the chief engineer to have the ability and duty to deal with their failure to do so.

So I plan to offer testimony in support of the bill. 

However, in reviewing the details of the proposed bill, I find it is overly broad and unfocused.  While all of western Kansas Ogallala is in decline (outside some fringe areas of low use), action is not uniformly needed. On Friday and Saturday, I reviewed the bill in detail and provided the Committee leadership with my suggestions for improving the bill, aimed to focus action where it is most urgently needed, to improve its clarity, and to insure it results in meaningful action.

Specifically, I plan to recommend the bill be modified in the following ways:

  • The bill should exempt areas already in LEMAs from the first round of action plan development.
  • Instead of “areas of concern,” the bill should require the identification of “priority areas of concern” where the need for planning and action is most clear and urgent. 
  • With all the data already available, the GMDs can and should have their priority areas of concern identified by the end of this year, and should submit such to the Legislature and state agencies for review by January 1, 2024. 
  • Action plans be submitted over two years, with half being submitted by July 1, 2025, and the remaining by July 1, 2026, to get started and spread the workload.
  • A clear standard for action plan adequacy should be added. 

With respect to the question of “priority areas of concern,” I plan to submit the latest KGS Estimated Useable Life map below and suggest that all areas with less than 50 years of remaining useable life be in a GMD’s “priority areas of concern” as a minimum. This will focus action where most needed.

KGS' Estimated Usable Life Map with Q-stable values 2022

This year’s bill does not provide a clear statement of what constitutes an adequate plan.  I think this is essential. So here is what I plan to suggest. On the KGS’ Remaining Usable Life Map above, I have added KGS’s draft county “Q-stable values” I obtained from KGS last year.  The Q-Stable values represent the percentage reduction in pumping required to get to stable water levels for the next couple of decades.  As an example, the largest value on the map is Grey County at 53.4. This means the KGS estimates it would take a 53.4% reduction in pumping in Grey County to get Grey County to stable water levels. To halve the rate of decline in Grey County would take a reduction of half of this, or 27%.

In last year’s HB 2686, for failure of a GMD to develop an adequate plan, it authorized the Chief Engineer to “develop a plan to, at a minimum, reduce by 50% the 2000-2019 rate of groundwater declines as determined by the chief engineer…”  Again, to obtain a 50% reduction in the rate of decline, the required percentage reductions in pumping would be half of the values in map. To take a less extreme values, in neighboring Haskell County, the 40.6 would mean a 20% reduction in pumping would be needed to half its rate of decline. 

In my view, the 50% reduction in rate of decline standard is very serious step, especially for the first set of an action plan. I believe an explicate standard is needed for this process to be taken seriously by a GMD that has been resistant to taking action. I am suggesting the committee adopt a value between 25% and 40% as the required reduction in rate of decline for an action plan to be considered adequate in these areas of less than 50 years of remaining useable life. 

Let me know if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions. 

For more information from KGS on the High Plains aquifer see:  https://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/pic18/index.html and/or  https://www.kgs.ku.edu/HighPlains/HPA_Atlas/index.html.

Categories
GMD Groundwater

GMD 1’s Proposed Four County LEMA 
Satisfies Initial Hearing Requirements; 
Set for Second Hearing February 2, 2023

Introduction 

As reported previously (see https://kwrconsulting.com/gmd-groundwater/gmd-1s-proposed-four-county-lema-%ef%bf%bc/), the Western Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 1 (GMD 1) covers parts of five counties in western Kansas (Lane, Scott, Wichita, Greeley and Wallace Counties) over the Ogallala Aquifer. The GMD has experienced very significant reductions in saturated thickness, resulting in about one-half of the irrigation wells no longer being used.  Despite reductions in use, the aquifer continues to decline.  To extend the life of the Ogallala Aquifer within GMD 1, the GMD 1 Board first developed the Wichita County Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA), implemented starting in 2021, and on July 1, 2022, requested the Chief Engineer initiate proceedings for its proposed “Four County” LEMA to cover the rest of the district. 

See the article cited above for a description of the LEMA tool generally, as well as specifics for GMD’s proposed Four County LEMA. In short, the article covered the following: 

  • The GMD Act was amended in 2012 to allow GMDs to develop a specific proposal for reducing groundwater declines in all or parts of their District as Local Enhanced Management Areas (LEMAs) and to have that proposal considered for adoption by DWR’s Chief Engineer via two public hearings. LEMAs typically include elements of flexibility in the use of allocations to reduce the impact of water use reductions, such as multi-year and group allocations. For more information, see DWR’s website at: https://www.agriculture.ks.gov/lema.  
  • After careful consideration, including significant public input, GMD 1 developed its Four County LEMA to cover the rest of the District. Required reductions, designed to extend the life of the Ogallala Aquifer within the District, would vary from 0 to 25%, with larger reductions for larger wateruse and lesser reductions for smaller wateruse. The LEMA Plan also includes significant flexibilities to allow waterusers to make best use of their allocations as well as a robust appeal process to consider past voluntary conservation in the wateruse records used as a basis for allocation.  The LEMA plan, if adopted, would be in effect for years 2023 to 2027.

Initial public hearing to consider the GMD 1’s Four County LEMA Plan

On July 1, 2022, the GMD 1 Board submitted its Four County LEMA plan for the remainder of GMD 1 to the Chief Engineer for consideration.  On August 4, 2022, the Chief Engineer, pursuant to statutory requirements, found the Proposed LEMA Plan “acceptable for consideration.”  

After notice required by the LEMA statute, an initial public hearing in the matter was held on October 17, 2022, and, on December 21, 2022, the chief engineer issued an order finding that the evidence presented at the initial public hearing satisfied the relevant criteria set forth in K.S.A. 82a-1041. See DWR’s web page related to the proposed LEMA at: https://agriculture.ks.gov/divisions-programs/dwr/managing-kansas-water-resources/local-enhanced-management-areas/gmd1-four-county-lema

Specifically, the hearing was required to resolve the following:

a. Whether one or more of the circumstances specified in K.S.A. 82a-1036(a) through (d), and amendments thereto, exist;

b. Whether the public interest of K.S.A. 82a-1020, and amendments thereto, requires that one or more corrective control provisions be adopted; and

c. Whether the geographic boundaries are reasonable.

In his order, Chief Engineer Earl Lewis, stated that he found, based on substantial, competent evidence, that all of the above were found to be true for the proposed LEMA. The Chief Engineer’s order, including its summary of the evidence considered and findings of fact and law, is posted at: https://agriculture.ks.gov/docs/default-source/dwr-water-appropriation-documents/four-county-lema-findings-and-order.pdf?sfvrsn=10ba98c1_0.

As a result, the Chief Engineer further ordered that a second hearing to consider the designation of the Four County LEMA would be held.

Second Hearing on Feb 2 considers whether the LEMA Plan should be adopted

Notice of the second hearing was sent to all water right holders within the proposed LEMA and other effected parties, a copy of which is available at the link above. 

The hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. central time on February 2, 2022 at the Western Kansas Child Advocacy Center, 212 E. 5th Street, Scott City, Kansas. 

The hearing will determine whether the proposed LEMA should be designated and if the corrective controls proposed in the LEMA Management Plan shall be accepted, rejected, or if modifications to the plan should be proposed.

For more information 

In addition to DWR’s web site noted, additional information can be found on GMD 1’s web site at https://www.gmd1.org/lema/, which includes a copy of the proposed LEMA plan and other pertinent information, including a frequently asked questions (FAQ) document that addresses common questions about the LEMA Plan. Effected waterusers can contact the District office at 620-872-5563 to obtain an allocation report for their particular water rights.

Categories
Conservation Policy

Governor’s Water Conference, Updated State Water Plan, more

In this issue, we will catch up on a number of news stories of the last two months, including:

  • The 2022 Governor’s Water Conference; 
  • The release of the latest 5-year State Water Plan update;
  • An article which lauds Hays for its leadership in water conservation; and 
  • The USGS releases an updated and more comprehensive version of the water cycle.

Governor’s Water Conference, November 16-17, Manhattan

Governor’s Water Conference

For the first time since 2019, the Governor’s water conference will be in person; back in Manhattan after two years in Wichita. For more, see the Kansas Water Office’s website at:  https://kwo.ks.gov/news-events/governor’s-water-conference.  This is the 11th Annual Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas. As always, the conference is designed to highlight the latest policy and research developments of water issues in Kansas. It starts off with a plenary session including national speakers, but most of the conference is organized around a series of breakout sessions around a host of water themes including such things as: water conservation, water management, technology and crop varieties, reservoirs; municipal and industrial water; watersheds; High Plains and other aquifers; irrigation and water conservation; droughts, floods, and climate change; water transfers; water reuse; water and energy; water and health.  If you are interested in water, there should be something of interest here.

From my perspective, best of all, the conference includes a great opportunity to network with the who’s who of the water world in Kansas. 

KWRC is a conference sponsor and will have a booth. Please drop by to see us.

State Water Plan update 

The Kansas Water Authority (KWA) and Kansas Water Office (KWO) are charged with continuously maintaining and updating the Kansas Water Plan, with major updates to the plan typically occurring on a five-year cycle. To develop the Plan, KWA/KWO gathers input from a variety of local, state, and federal agencies, as well as grassroots input from its Regional Advisory Committees. The resulting Kansas Water Plan is a tool used by the State of Kansas to address current water resources issues and to plan for future needs. 

During August, the KWA approved the 2022 version for release to the public. The new Plan can be found at:  https://kwo.ks.gov/water-plan/water-plan. While the document is 261 pages long, I found it easy to scan to quickly access its major themes and the content of greatest interest to me.  If interested in water issues, I suggest you download it and peruse it.

Start with its 10-page executive summary, which is also an overview of the rest of the document. It includes:

  • A review of the 5 “Guiding Principles of the Kansas Water Plan” around which the Plan is written, which includes: 
    • Conserve and Extend the High Plains Aquifer,  
    • Secure, Protect and Restore our Kansas Reservoirs,
    • Improve the State’s Water Quality,
    • Reduce our Vulnerability to Extreme Events. and 
    • Increase Awareness of Kansas Water Resources.
  • An overview the Regional Planning Areas used by KWA/KWO in developing getting local input. 
  • Discussion of Water funding, including the State’s Water Plan fund.
  • A high-level section on the state’s management of water.

After review of the executive summary, you can spend time in the section(s) of greatest interest, be they guiding principles or geographic areas of particular interest. 

Hays lauded for its leadership in water conservation

An extensive article by High Plains Public Radio (https://www.hppr.org/hppr-news/2022-10-10/this-city-in-kansas-really-conserves-its-water-but-that-still-might-not-be-enough-to-survive investigates and highlights water conservation efforts of Hays, Kansas. While there are many communities across the semi-arid High Plains impacted by poor water supply, Hays was — and is — the only city in Kansas with more than 15,000 residents but no sustainable source of water, being too far west for reliable rainfall and reservoirs and too far east to tap into the Ogallala aquifer. As a result, Hays has the most extensive program of water conservation in the state and has invested significantly in a decades-long quest for a sustainable water source today.  

One quote: “Thanks to decades of conservation efforts, Hays has become the California of Kansas — a place where thinking about your water use is a way of life. For now, it’s an outlier. But as climate change brings drier, hotter weather to Kansas, more cities may have to follow a similar path.”

Read the article for much more.

“Not Your Childhood Water Cycle”, USGS releases an updated and more comprehensive version 

USGS Water Cycle Diagram

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) water cycle diagram is used by hundreds of thousands of students in the United States and worldwide. The agency recently released a new diagram for the first time in more than 20 years, this time with humans as show-runners. Although people have long siphoned water from groundwater and diverted rivers into farm fields and industrial plants, the new diagram is the first time humans have been included in what was presented until now as a “natural” cycle. The change reflects the latest 20 years of research uncovering humanity’s central role in the cycle and how to communicate it visually. “We need to change how we think about these things to be able to live and use water sustainably for our future,” said Cee Nell, a data visualization specialist at the USGS VizLab, which designed the diagram. In addition to natural processes like ocean evaporation, precipitation over land, and runoff, the new diagram features grazing, urban runoff, domestic and industrial water use, and other human activities. Each label in the chart comes from data tracking the significant paths and pools of water worldwide. Read more at: https://eos.org/articles/not-your-childhood-water-cycle. 

Thanks to the Kansas Rural Water Association for allowing reprint of this article (https://www.krwa.net/enews).

Categories
Legislature Meeting Reports Policy

Water News: House Committee, upcoming meetings, and Wichita ASR recommendation

My two-year anniversary of retiring as Chief Engineer of the Kansas Division of Water Resources is only a month away. Over that time, COVID has dominated the news and there has not been much in the way of water news.  That seems to be changing. Below are recent highlights and news of meeting to come. 

The House Committee on Water continues its work. The committee’s agenda for the coming week includes presentations from KDA’s Division of Conservation and the Kansas Assoc. of Conservation District on Monday, 1/24; a hearing on HB 2480 on Tuesday, 1/25; and presentations by Kansas Water Office & Kansas Water Authority on the Kansas Water Plan on Wednesday, 1/26.

Hearing on HB 2480 (definition of “water project”) – On Tuesday the committee will have their first hearing on legislation, HB 2480, which according to the Fiscal note “would remove the prohibition of water supply projects from using the Public Water Supply State Revolving Loan Fund if the projects involved a water transfer as defined by KSA 82a-1501, et seq.”  The bill was introduced by a Hays legislator to allow them to qualify for funding for which they are currently ineligible. 

Media attention – Last week, the Kansas Reflector published an article, reprinted in Kansas newspapers on the Committee’s work, featuring its considerations related to water quality, reservoir sedimentation, groundwater conservation, water funding, and water agency restructuring.  See https://www.kansas.com/…/politics…/article257337627.html.

HCOW webpage improvements – We have improved our index page for the Committee’s work at: https://kwrconsulting.com/blog/hcow2022/. In addition to presentation materials, there are links to videos of each of the hearings. The page also includes a summary of the week’s agenda at the top. For more frequent updates, follow us on twitter at @KWRConsulting.

Upcoming meetings:

The Kansas Water Authority is meeting on Thursday, 1/27, starting at 8:30 at the Ramada Inn in Topeka. At this writing, no materials are available, but it should be available early next week at the following link: https://kwo.ks.gov/admin-pages/events-landing-page/2022/01/27/default-calendar/kansas-water-authority-meeting. Virtual attendance is also provided via a link on the page above.  

The 2022 Winter Water Technology Expo will be taking place at the Finney County Fairgrounds in Garden City, Kansas on Thursday, February 3 from 5-9 p.m.  There will be demonstrations provided throughout the night, along with door prizes, food, and beverages. The Expo is free and open to the public. For more information visit: https://www.kwo.ks.gov/news-events/winter-water-technology-expo.  KWRC will participate as an exhibitor. 

Wichita Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) – The City of Wichita has the state’s only active Aquifer Storage and Recovery project. The project was initially developed and approved in two phases. During 2018, the City requested changes to the conditions associated with its existing permits for Phase II of the project. After a public information phase, the matter was set for a formal hearing in 2019, with the Chief Engineer delegating the hearing to Connie Owen and requesting her recommendation on the matter. On January 14, 2022, Ms. Owen provided her summary and recommendations, recommending the City’s requests be denied.  See the link below for her report and the extensive public record. The matter now goes to the Chief Engineer for a decision. https://agriculture.ks.gov/divisions-programs/dwr/managing-kansas-water-resources/aquifer-storage-and-recovery/wichita-asr