![](images/Logos/Associated%20Press.png)
Warning about aquifer's decline sets
up big fight in Kansas
Story by By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic1%20copy%202.jpg)
Lee Reeve poses for a photo at the cattle feedyard and
ethanol plant operated by his family Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near
Garden City, Kan. Reeve sees language by the Kansas Water Authority on
controlling groundwater use in western Kansas as "toxic,"as the Kansas
Legislature looks to take up ways to address depletion of the Ogallala
Aquifer in the upcoming session. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
Topeka, Kan. (AP) — Kansas water experts are
sounding an alarm decades in the making: Farmers and ranchers in the
state's western half must stop pumping more water out of a vast
aquifer than nature puts back each year or risk the economic collapse
of a region important to the U.S. food supply.
That warning is setting up a big and messy fight for the annual
session of the Kansas Legislature set to open Monday.
The Kansas Water Authority is telling lawmakers that Kansas needs to
break sharply with its decadeslong policy of slowing depletion while
still allowing water levels to drop in the Ogallala Aquifer. The
aquifer covers roughly 175,000 square miles (453,000 square
kilometers) in the western and Great Plains states of Texas, New
Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and South
Dakota.
Most of those states have areas where depletion is a problem, but the
call in Kansas to “halt” the declines has farmers, ranchers and
politically influential agriculture groups preparing to battle
proposals that would give them less control over water and possibly
could force them to cultivate fewer acres, buy expensive new equipment
or turn on a dime to grow different crops.
“The easy part was making the statement. That didn’t cost anybody
anything,” said Clay Scott, who farms in southwestern Kansas. “We’re
going to have to start paying for it, and we have to decide how that
gets divvied up.”
Kansas produces more than 20% of the nation's wheat and has about 18%
of the cattle being fed in the U.S. The western third of Kansas, home
to most of its portion of the Ogallala, accounts for 60% of the value
of all Kansas crops and livestock. That's possible because of the
water.
The recommendation on the Ogallala from the water authority, a
planning and advisory commission, is a response to data showing that
since widespread pumping began around 1940, much of the Ogallala has
lost at least 30% ofits available water and more than 60% in
places in western Kansas. The Kansas Geological Survey had a team in
western Kansas this week to measure well depths for updated figures.
“There are wells that are starting to run dry already, so this isn’t a
distant problem in some areas,” said Tom Buller, executive director of
the Kansas Rural Center, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable
agriculture and family farming. “There isn’t a lot of time to solve
the problem.”
The Water Authority's recommendation comes as much of the western U.S.
continues to suffer through a megadrought fueled by climate change.
Parts of Kansas have had drought conditions for a year, and more than
half the state has been in extreme drought since mid-September.
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic3%20copy.jpg)
The dry bed of the Arkansas River stretches towards the
rising moon Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, in Deerfield, Kan. The river in
western Kansas is mostly dry after decades of extensive groundwater
use and periodic droughts. Lawmakers are looking to take up
groundwater issues in western Kansas in the upcoming session as the
Kansas Water Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try to
slow the steady decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. (AP
Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is currently working on a
plan to cut water use from the Colorado River in western states by
15%, and Arizona is restricting
large-scale farming. Nebraska last year launched a
$500 million canal project to divert water from the South Platte
River in Colorado.
“We are told that the future, due to climate change, is going to get
warmer and drier in western Kansas,” said Connie Owen, director of the
Kansas Water Office, which oversees long-term plans for preserving
water. “That is making things worse, which is all the more reason that
we have to deal with this now.”
There's broad agreement, including among powerful agriculture groups
and nervous farmers and ranchers, that Kansas needs to extend the
aquifer's life.
But the path forward isn't yet clear for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly
and the Republican-controlled Legislature.
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic4%20copy.jpg)
A center pivot irrigation sprinkler stretches across a
field Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near Deerfield, Kan. Lawmakers are
looking to take up groundwater issues in western Kansas in the
upcoming session as the Kansas Water Authority is urging stricter
usage measures to try to slow the steady decline of water levels in
the Ogallala Aquifer. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
In a pre-session interview, Kelly promised only to get affected
parties together to negotiate a comprehensive solution. She added that
following her narrow reelection in November, “I’ve got some political
capital to spend to deal with what will be a very contentious issue.”
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic5%20copy.jpg)
A center pivot irrigation sprinkler is silhouetted
against the sky at sunset Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near Deerfield, Kan.
Lawmakers are looking to take up groundwater issues in western Kansas
in the upcoming session as the Kansas Water Authority is urging
stricter usage measures to try to slow the steady decline of water
levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
Depletion of the Ogallala was one reason that in the Kansas House, the
Water Committee last year considered a
283-page bipartisan proposal to
set aside $49 million a year for conservation efforts and other
programs. The measure also would have reorganized those programs and
made the official who grants rights to use water independent of the
state Department of Agriculture. In addition, it would have curbed the
power of big irrigators in local districts that manage groundwater
use, including from the Ogallala.
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic6.png)
A center pivot irrigation sprinkler is silhouetted
against the sky at sunset as a drilling rig works to drill a new
irrigation well in the distance Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near
Deerfield, Kan. Lawmakers are looking to take up groundwater issues in
western Kansas in the upcoming session as the Kansas Water Authority
is urging stricter usage measures to try to slow the steady decline of
water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
Opponents included the Kansas Farm Bureau and the Kansas Livestock
Association. Nothing ultimately passed after critics accused
supporters of drafting it largely in secret. The committee's chair
later retired.
The new Water Committee chair, Republican Rep. Jim Minnix, a
southwestern Kansas farmer, said he hopes to work on incentives for
local officials to be more aggressive about water conservation.
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic7%20copy.jpg)
A discarded couch litters the dry bed of the Arkansas
River Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near Garden City, Kan. The river in
western Kansas is mostly dry after decades of extensive groundwater
use and periodic droughts. Lawmakers are looking to take up
groundwater issues in western Kansas in the upcoming session as the
Kansas Water Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try to
slow the steady decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. (AP
Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
The state allows local districts to set
restrictions, and one in northwest Kansas gets high marks from water
experts and officials for cutting water use. In one area of 99 square
miles (256 square kilometers), it set water-use rules, sought to cut
consumption 20% and reduced it 35% over the past decade, according to
Manager Shannon Kenyon.
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic8%20copy.jpg)
Ben Zellner looks at a tag showing a small decline in
water levels in an unused irrigation well on his farm after it was
measured by the Kansas Geological Survey Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near
Marienthal, Kan. Lawmakers are looking to take up groundwater issues
in western Kansas in the upcoming session as the Kansas Water
Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try to slow the steady
decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. (AP Photo/Charlie
Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
Kenyon prizes local control but said the state
should take charge where local officials haven't pursued enough
conservation.
If local officials allow the water dry up, she
said, “They are going to kill the economy in the state of Kansas,”
Kenyon said.
Some western Kansas farmers argue that the
state's best move is to ramp up education about ways to conserve water
and provide incentives to help farmers adopt them. Several of them, as
well as local water officials, said agriculture has become more
careful with water over the past several decades through new
technology, new crop varieties and better farming practices.
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic9%20copy.jpg)
Kansas Geological Survey field research technician
Connor Umbrell, right, talks to Ben Zellner after measuring the water
level in an irrigation on Zellner's farm Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near
Marienthal, Kan. Lawmakers are looking to take up groundwater issues
in western Kansas in the upcoming session as the Kansas Water
Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try to slow the steady
decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. (AP Photo/Charlie
Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
Lee Reeve, whose family has farmed near Garden City in southwest
Kansas for more than 100 years and now operates a cattle feed yard and
ethanol plant, sees the Water Authority's language on halting
depletion as “toxic,” noting that farmers already are suspicious of
government programs.
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic10%20copy.jpg)
Kansas Geological Survey field research technician
Connor Umbrell measures water levels in an irrigation well Thursday,
Jan. 5, 2023, near Marienthal, Kan. Lawmakers are looking to take up
groundwater issues in western Kansas in the upcoming session as the
Kansas Water Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try to
slow the steady decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
“There’s just enough of this scare stuff out there that it's hard to
get through to people that, ‘Hey, there are things we can do,’” he
said.
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic11%20copy.jpg)
Kansas Geological Survey field research technician
Connor Umbrell walks an irrigation well to measure the water level
Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near Marienthal, Kan. Lawmakers are looking to
take up groundwater issues in western Kansas in the upcoming session
as the Kansas Water Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try
to slow the steady decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic13%20copy.jpg)
Kansas Geological Survey field research technician
Connor Umbrell measures water levels in an irrigation well Thursday,
Jan. 5, 2023, near Marienthal, Kan. Lawmakers are looking to take up
groundwater issues in western Kansas in the upcoming session as the
Kansas Water Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try to
slow the steady decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic14%20copy.jpg)
Kansas Geological Survey field research technician
Connor Umbrell, right, talks to Ben Zellner after measuring the water
level in an irrigation on Zellner's farm Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near
Marienthal, Kan. Lawmakers are looking to take up groundwater issues
in western Kansas in the upcoming session as the Kansas Water
Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try to slow the steady
decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic15%20copy.jpg)
Ben Zellner walks back to his truck after checking on an irrigation
well on his farm Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near Marienthal, Kan.
Lawmakers are looking to take up groundwater issues in western Kansas
in the upcoming session as the Kansas Water Authority is urging
stricter usage measures to try to slow the steady decline of water
levels in the Ogallala Aquifer. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided by
The Associated Press
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic16%20copy.jpg)
Kansas Geological Survey field research technician
Connor Umbrell measures water levels in an irrigation well Thursday,
Jan. 5, 2023, near Marienthal, Kan. Lawmakers are looking to take up
groundwater issues in western Kansas in the upcoming session as the
Kansas Water Authority is urging stricter usage measures to try to
slow the steady decline of water levels in the Ogallala Aquifer.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
![](images/images_01_09_2023/pic17A%20copy.jpg)
A yellow tag noting water levels is left on an unused
irrigation well after the well's water level was measured by the
Kansas Geological Survey Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, near Marienthal, Kan.
Lawmakers are looking to take up groundwater issues in western Kansas
in the upcoming session as the Kansas Water Authority is urging
stricter usage measures to try to slow the steady decline of water
levels in the Ogallala Aquifer.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)© Provided
by The Associated Press
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
exactrix@exactrix.com
|