Farmers protest cities’ water right change application

A public informational meeting to discuss the applications submitted by the cities of Hays and Russell, Kansas, to convert irrigation water rights at the R9 Ranch in Edwards County to municipal purposes and pipe the water to Ellis and Russell Counties June 21 turned to anger from area farmers who want the state to deny the application.

The meeting was held in Greensburg and led by David Barfield, chief engineer of the Division of Water Resources of the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

The meeting’s origins go back to February 1995 when the city of Hays acquired the 6,400-acre R-9 Ranch as a future municipal water source. The $4.2-million contract price included approximately $600,000 for water rights.

The city of Russell later acquired an 18-percent share of the original water right to an aggregate total of 7,647 acre-feet. Now the cities are ready to make actual use of 6,756.3 acre-feet of that water right and need formal DWR approval to do so.

The meeting was set to be the first step in a series of decisions Barfield must make regarding the proposed conversion before the cities could actually do so.

First, the water rights must receive approval from Barfield to change the well locations, place of use and the use made of water.

If those change applications are approved, the proposal would then be subject to the Kansas Water Transfer Act, requiring additional public input and a public hearing, due to the distance the water would be piped. The June 21 meeting was organized to review the first step—the change applications—and to seek public input.

The chief engineer has proposed to approve the change applications with a unique 48,000 acre-feet, 10-year rolling limitation (for an average authorized quantity of 4,800 acre-feet per year), based on peer-reviewed computer modeling which indicates such a limitation would be in the public interest to maintain a reasonable, long-term, sustainable yield of water at the former ranch.

The water rights would be further limited to a quantity that is currently considered reasonable for the projected needs over the next 20 years.

Testy start

The meeting did not start off on a good foot. Some farmers interrupted Barfield’s opening presentation, expressing anger at Barfield for arranging a meeting away from the Kinsley area, where the land in question is located, for holding the meeting during wheat harvest and for setting a July 12 deadline for submission of written public comments.

Barfield explained that at meetings like this it did offer time for public comment.

“This is a way of getting feedback from you as part of the decision-making process,” Barfield said to the approximately 100 attendees. “This isn’t a public hearing, but it does give you an opportunity to make comments.”

Hays and Russell initially filed 30 water-right change applications (covering 56 points of diversion) during June 2015 and filed their water-transfer application during January 2016. The cities filed two additional change applications in April 2018, to account for two water rights that were created as the result of water rights that were divided in January 2018.

“Kansas statute provides that somebody who owns a water right can apply to have their water right changed,” Barfield said. “The changes can be places of use, points of diversion, use made of water or a combination of those three things. Here we have the cities asking to change all three of them.”

“Certain things have to be found to be true in order for the application to be approved. It has to be reasonable. We have to know the change will not lead to impairment of others’ water rights, the change has to be in the same local source of supply, and then receive approval.”

Barfield then outlined the draft proposed master order that has the following major provisions regarding contingent changes to the R9 Water Rights:

• Changes to the water rights’ use made of water from irrigation to municipal use.

• Changes to the places of use from just the R9 Ranch to the cities and their immediate vicinities, in addition to the ranch.

• Changes to the points of diversion from the existing 56 irrigation wells to 14 consolidated municipal wells.

As a result of the changes, the cities would submit to the following:

• Imposition of a 10-year rolling aggregate limitation of 48,000 acre-feet (an average of 4,800 acre-feet per year), based on the reasonable long-term yield of the R9 Ranch.

• Imposition of reasonable municipal-need limitations of 5670.23 acre-feet per year and 1841.3 acre-feet per year for Hays and Russell, respectively.

• Various reductions and limitations regarding rates of diversion.

• Prescribed reporting requirements, including a monitoring plan.

• Imposition of a delayed effective date.

The order does not become effective unless and until both a final, non-appealable transfer order is issued by the transfer panel, and Hays enters into a written contract to begin construction of the project. If these events do not occur by Dec. 31, 2029 (or by any authorized extension), or if before then the cities expressly abandon the project, then the changes do not become effective and the water rights revert back to their original characteristics.

“The cities have worked hard with the Division of Water Resources since June 2015 to draft an order that conforms to all statutes and regulations,” Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty said. “Most importantly, the cities are committed to the long-term sustainability of the well field.”

Following the cities’ presentation, the floor was turned over to the Water Protection Association of Central Kansas, which hired its own engineering firm to review the proposal and presented its own findings at the meeting for the first time.

Via a remote presentation, Andrew Keller, of Keller-Bliesner Engineering, LLC of Logan, Utah, said the cities’ draft proposal would create a future hardship for not only farmers adjacent to the R-9 ranch in Edwards County, but would impact the entire Mid-Arkansas River Basin over time.

Keller said available groundwater availability in the alluvial Mid-Ark River Basin has been trending downward over the past three decades, despite reduced pumping by irrigators in the area.

Keller’s presentation concluded that the current proposal was unsustainable and argued to Barfield to limit the water rights to a much lower quantity of 3,790 acre-feet per year.

After the Keller presentation, several producers adjoining the R9 voiced their opposition to the water rights conversion. Typical of the comments was that of Pam Wetzel, who lives and farms on the west side of the Arkansas River.

“My biggest concern is we’ll never see another drop of water in the county ever again once it’s moved,” Wetzel said. “It’s our livelihood. It will continue to deteriorate our area.”

For more information about the change application, including all documents related to the application and the form to submit written comments, please visit the KDA-DWR website at agriculture.ks.gov/HaysR9.

Larry Dreiling can be reached at 785-628-1117 or [email protected].