LARNED, Kan. (AP) - As farmers, community leaders and others across Kansas meet in an effort to solve the state’s water issues, Kinsley-area farmer John Janssen stresses one valid point.
“Don’t throw us in with the Ogallala,” he said.
This area isn’t western Kansas, where groundwater wells are dropping by several feet a year. There, some pockets have declined by more than 150 feet since pre-development, with typical declines in southwest and west-central Kansas of 50 to 150 feet.
But largely, the Big Bend Prairie Aquifer that Janssen pumps from to sustain his crops is sustainable. There are a few pockets - including in the western part of the region, where there are declines. Yet, in the east, the water table is high enough that some homeowners complain about flooded basements.
It’s just one fact, Janssen said, that he and fellow Big Bend Prairie irrigators have been vocal about as Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and his staff focus on the daunting issue of solving the state’s water woes.
The governor says that the state’s groundwater supplies will be 70 percent spent in 50 years if nothing is done. But in this portion of south-central Kansas, Janssen says the situation isn’t as dire and is much different.
“I think we need a little tweak here and there, but it isn’t going to take much,” the Big Bend Groundwater Management District No. 5 board member said. “We are so close to balance when we look at our big model - 3 percent plus or minus.”
Brownback first unveiled his water vision for the state in 2013. He and his staff are on a stringent timetable in an effort to preserve and extend Kansas’ water supplies.
Action is happening fast as 14 separate basin groups formed and began meeting across the state earlier this year. Public meetings in each basin will happen through March.
Janssen was one of 50 to attend the public meeting in Larned for the Big Bend Prairie basin, The Hutchinson News (https://bit.ly/1Erct3f ) reports.
Lane Letourneau, with the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources, said that water vision meetings over the past year have attracted more than 13,500 people who’ve given input in the governor’s water vision plan.
Concerned about the future of the resource, Brownback said at the Governor’s Water Conference in November that he wants to see 75 percent of the plan’s first-phase projects implemented by the 2015 conference. And, with local control being a big issue for stakeholders, Brownback announced the basin teams would form to develop local goals.
“The most consistent comments that rose to the top was setting local goals at the local level,” said Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Josh Roe. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach.”
Letourneau said the next step is for the vision teams to meet and discuss draft goals, which will be presented to the Kansas Water Authority in May.
Conversation and dialogue during the meeting did include conservation. Letourneau pulled up a map showing significant declines in the western part of the district, albeit in the east, the water table is sustainable.
The biggest issue, however, reiterated from Janssen and others, is water quality.
East of U.S. 281 through Pratt has natural salinity, said Orin Feril, manager of GMD 5.
“If you clean up the quality you’d have a boost in quantity,” he said, noting that the water is unusable.
Jeff Lanterman, a St. John resident and water commissioner for the Kansas Department of Agriculture, said he has worked with many small towns in the region regarding public water quality issues.
Lanterman said, for instance, water quality issues caused St. John to put in an ion exchange plant.
But water quality concerns also turned to oil companies. Janssen said he knew of situations where it took an attorney calling the state to get cleanup at salt water injection well sites.
Darrell Wood, president of GMD 5, said in some places, he has four miles of disposal well pipe going through his property. Those wells pump 30,000 barrels a day, he said, adding he was concerned that these sites weren’t being monitored.
It’s only 20 feet to water in his area, he added.
Concerns regarding water quality and oilfield accountability also were voiced at other tables.
“Water with no quality means no water,” Janssen said. “If you can’t drink it, it is not valuable.”
Richard Wenstrom, a Lewis-area farmer and irrigator who has long been known for his conservation on his farm, is heading up the basin vision team. He said that the group would meet two more times to formulate goals, which will be presented May 20 in Greensburg.
The discussions have been positive, he said.
“Everyone is bringing to the table the pluses and minuses of our water resources in our area,” he said. “That includes irrigators, that includes cities.”
There are small pockets where decline is prevalent, he said.
“We have a chance to be sustainable here,” he said of the Big Bend region. “Quite often, all we hear about is everyone is running out of water. But we have a chance here - it is all up to us. Overall, we have work to do but it is not like being in the Ogallala.”
Janssen and St. John farmer Fred Grunder, who serves on the vision team, added that wells that are declining could be helped if western Kansas’ Arkansas River flowed again.
It has flowed to their area in at least 15 years, Grunder estimated.
“If the Ark River ran, it would automatically heal up areas,” Grunder said. “But it isn’t going to run.”
The river, due to western Kansas’ overabundance of irrigation wells drawing down the Ogallala, along with other issues upstream in Colorado, no longer has a connection with the groundwater table.
Thus, the Ark no longer flows in a span that stretches largely from Garden City to Larned. In the early 2000s, the state looked at ways to regain flow in the river, which included a conservation retirement program.
“That is a huge recharge method,” Grunder said of the river.
Most of his wells have stayed at a steady level, Janssen said. But the river’s lack of flow has affected one well.
“We got one well three miles off the river in Kiowa County - or 2 1/2 miles as the crow flies - that would make right at 800 gallons a minute if the river was flowing. Last summer, we nozzled it down to 350.”
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Information from: The Hutchinson (Kan.) News, https://www.hutchnews.com
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