Regulations over the Ogallala Aquifer could be coming to Kansas farmers and ranchers after the agency that advises the governor and Legislature recommended steps should be taken to avoid its water levels from declining.
The Ogallala Aquifer encompasses 174,000 square miles over eight states, from South Dakota to Texas. After World War II, with the advent of center-pivot irrigation, farmers started pumping from the aquifer. They turned a once-arid region in western Kansas into a productive agriculture and livestock economy.
The Kansas Water Authority (KWA), a 13-member board consisting of appointed members by the governor and Legislature, voted 12-1 at their Dec. 15, 2022, meeting that the state should change how it manages the aquifer.
According to the Kansas Reflector, the water authority voted to put language in the 2023 annual report to the governor and Legislature stating the “policy of planned depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer is no longer in the best interest of the state of Kansas.”
The 2023 annual report also recommends that state policy include goals and actions to halt the decline of the Ogallala Aquifer “while promoting flexible and innovative management within a timeframe that achieves agricultural productivity, thriving economies and vibrant communities—now and for future generations of Kansans.”
The recommendations come as the aquifer’s levels have been dropping since the 1950s. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the state’s southwest region is experiencing exceptional drought, and 99% of the state is in some form of drought. In the drought years between 2010-14, aquifer levels declined an average of about 3 feet per year. Since 2015, levels dropped less than a foot each year until 2020. In the southwestern portion of the state, Kansas Groundwater Management District 3 reported water levels dropped by 1.25 feet in 2020, and average groundwater levels dropped by 2.17 feet in 2021, the largest decline in the region since 2013, when groundwater levels fell 2.43 feet.
While the figure may seem small, according to a Kansas Geological Survey analysis, the west-central portion of the state would need to reduce its water use by roughly 30% in an average year to stop the aquifer’s decline.
Legislation proposed in 2021 would have restructured state departments handling water and established a new secretary position that would serve on the governor’s cabinet. The bill was amended and replaced with a proposal to use sales tax revenue to fund water projects. Opponents of the bill included the Kansas Farm Bureau and the Kansas Livestock Association, who said water interests would be taken away from them. The bill passed the water committee but died on the calendar in May 2022.
According to the Kansas Reflector, former Rep. Ron Highland (R-51), then-chairman of the House Water Committee, said the cabinet position could help direct money toward funding the state’s water plan. The original bill would have increased fees for water users and levied new fees to raise about $8 million per year. According to a task force convened by then-Gov. Sam Brownback (R), it would require $55 million annually to address dwindling water supplies.
2023 measures
According to the 2023 annual report, KWA is requesting the Legislature “appropriate state funds which may be used to leverage additional federal, local or private resources for priority projects.” The annual report proposes there are funding opportunities from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for drinking water and the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART program. Additionally, the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act allocated monies to USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
The Kansas Water Office has also requested $450,000 in additional funding for High Plains Aquifer partnerships to conserve and extend the High Plains Aquifer. Additionally, it has requested $550,000 in funding for the irrigation technology program and $650,000 for the Water Transition Assistance Program by permanently retiring irrigation water rights with incentive-based cost-share.
While there may be legislation to curb draining the Ogallala Aquifer, farmers and ranchers in the west-central portion of the state are beginning to take measures to conserve water. Within the state’s Groundwater Management District 1, they have proposed a four-county (Wallace, Greeley, Scott and Lane counties) Local Enhanced Management Area (LEMA).
The goal of the LEMA is to limit irrigation pumping of non-vested rights within the LEMA boundaries, for the five-year period of 2023-27, to 472,000 acre-feet (an acre-foot is 325,871 gallons). This would accomplish a reduction in excess of 10% in use from the 2011-20 average use of these water rights.
“While this level of reduction is not sufficient to stabilize water levels, according to the work of the Kansas Geological Survey, this goal would represent substantial progress toward prolonging the life of the aquifer,” the LEMA proposal said.
While the proposed LEMA is smaller than others in the state, according to High Plains Public Radio, it covers over 1 million acres and 2,000 wells. The state’s first LEMA—the Sheridan 6 LEMA—was formed in 2013 in the northwest portion of Kansas. The initial goal of the Sheridan 6 LEMA was to cut water usage by 20%, and a report by Dr. Bill Golden of Kansas State University in 2018 stated the amount of irrigated land was relatively unchanged and operations remained as profitable as before, apparently due to reduced input costs. In a separate study, irrigators in the LEMA reduced their usage by 31%, and 19% changed to crops that used less water. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
