Following up on the WE Blog’s interesting threads on Kansas’ water crisis, including ksfarmgrl’s passionate and informed posts from ground zero in western Kansas, our editorial Sunday argued that lawmakers need to do more to address irrigators’ continued overpumping of the Ogallala Aquifer in western Kansas.
The state Legislature last year made a small, token start on water-right buyback programs, but it’s just a drop in the bucket, and irrigators’ use of the resource continues to be unsustainable.
This should be a higher priority.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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37 Comments
They do! THEY DO READ THE THREADS!
This should make KFG estatic.
You go girl. And thanks WEblog folks.
Gracias in spades for the thread. I will be expounding on this after work.
Oh holy Jesus -Farmie’s gotta be having TCOs. (That’s even better than “estatic” Pee.)
Oops I misspelled ecstatic.
HEY I just caught that on my own and was in the middle of righting my own wrong when you posted that, needle-member.
Lib World, where another day is another crisis.
Thank you KSFRMGRL for keeping this desperate Kansas water crises on the front burner. Hopefully most WE Bloggers will support your warnings. It’s especially helpful that you live out in western Kansas over the heart of the Ogallala aquifer. If you “google maps” and look at the aerial maps of western Kansas, you see thousands of irrigation circles, each drawing valuable water from underground.
The Ogallala water is someday going to be extremely valuable. The Bass brothers realized that cheap Colorado River water supplied to the Imperial Valley for crops irrigation was much more valuable sold as drinking water to coastal Southern California inhabitants. They bought tens of thousands of acres of property, not for the land, but for the property-owners’ water shares.
Denver will pay high prices for Kansas water in 20 years. It will pay humongous prices in 50 years. If the water is still there.
Why do I see a nose bandage in my future? hee hee hee hee hee hee
Back at ya Randy and WE board!
We’ve barely scratched the surface of this suject.
And, btw, they’ve been working on this program to pay the water miners since at least 2003-2004.
So your more urban readers might ask themselves this question:
Why, in such a supposedly fiscally conservative state, are we thinking of paying landowners, many of whom are out of state, for the water and rights that the state already owns or controls?
Most of the proposed payment schemes dont compensate the operating farmer/tenant. They do nothing to support the little communities that rely on farmers for their economies.
And did I mention the state is not required to compensate ANYONE for lost water or rights?
In prior years, the water regulators wanted to create the program but not put any state money into it since there was an expectation that the federal government would eventually provide the funds for this program.
heheheheheheh.
Take a look at what’s happening with the farm bill negotiations. Any takers on that bet? Nope. There will be fewer federal dollars coming to ks, not more.
And even if it is federal money, isnt it still YOUR tax dollars?
Or is federal money play money?
heheheheheh
Oh yeah, “we’ve only just begun” this CONversation.
We havent even STARTED on the ethanol plants, coal plants, recreational water users, etc. They are all in competition with the corn growers, the irrigators, feedlots, etc for the limited water supplies.
Fight? To quote Dave “ya think?”
Is someone poppin’ the organic popcorn yet? This is gonna get good….
And in Topeka, the band plays on.
Good points heartlander.
“They bought tens of thousands of acres of property, not for the land, but for the property-owners’ water shares.”
T. Boone Pickens has been buying up property and water rights in far southwest Kansas for almost 20 years.
And he sure as hell isnt buying it for the view. heheheheh
Maybe he thinks global warning will make it beachfront property?
KFG—YOU THE MAN!HA.PUN INTENDED.
Gosh, I knows me a real litermarary giant.
And they want to build those big coal-fired plants that will use a bunch of water – not to mention mercury pollution and CO2.
One more political observation regarding the upcoming water wars.
Anyone old enough to remember the battle waged by John Carlin (the last REAL governor of Kansas!) to implement a severance tax on oil?
If so, you will remember that was a clear western vs eastern kansas fight. And with Carlin’s re-election, the east won. Clearly and decisively proving it could pretty much strong arm the west anytime it felt like it.
People in the west still mark that as the beginning of the end of political self determination of the western half of the state.
hee hee hee hee hee
Wait until the east realizes it is the west sucking up their water before it arrives.
Water wars will make the severance tax fight look like a tea party!
hehehehe Tracy
I’m still laughing
and protecting my nose
Yeah hmmm….
And at least four new ethanol plants to come on line, from Phillipsburg to Dodge, Liberal and, well, you know what’s going on around Garden City.
All in the Ark River basin. No wonder it turns to dust in some places before it gets to Wichita.
I havent seen governor leadership’s proposed budget in detail, but I wonder if she and her merry band of water boys put money in Mike Hayden’s budget to buy the Russell-Hays owned ranch in Edwards County? Or did they stash it somewhere less visible?
In previous years, the state genrously offered to buy the ranch at over one millions dollars MORE than it’s appraised value.
Just a little reward for the good democrats in Ellis county? And the good ethanol producers in Russell county?
The legislators from out here have been pretty vigilant about keeping that purchase from happening, but I wonder, on the heels of the 06 election, if sebelius’s people feel froggy enough to try to buy it again.
I’m tellin’ ya, this is just the start of the dirty laundry they dont want to see the light of day.
I was reminded recently by an informed person that our Arkansas River begins high in the Rocky Mountains as a mountain stream. As it drops down it rushes through the famous “Royal Gorge,” near Canon City, Colorado.
This water formerly passed on through eastern Colorado past Rocky Ford, the cantelope capital (I wonder if it still is). Then Colorado built the John Martin reservoir in eastern Colorado which essentially holds the water in Colorado. The State of Kansas should put a price on John Martin’s head, whoever he was.
I believe somehow some of the Arkansas River water is already diverted north to Colorado Springs or Denver, don’t know how. Obviously this usage will only increase.
Anyway, friends in Dodge City tell me the Arkansas River there has been dry for years and is used for racing off-road vehicles. The “dry line” is moving easterly towards Wichita. I would like to drive out there to find where this dry line is currently, presumably near Kinsley or even Great Bend. East of the “dry line,” the Arkansas River does pick up some water from seepage from the underground aquifers and from rain water.
I recall during the election campaign, Phill Kline bragged at a meeting that he had negotiated with his friend, the Colorado Attorney General, to pay Kansas several million dollars for this lost water. I should have asked Phill if this money would quench our thirst or if it was used to pay for government bureaucracy.
[grin]We manage to jab Phill on every single thread, no matter how obscure it links to the topic.
At least some of that money is supposed to be used in an ‘enhanced CREP” program to remove land from irrigation along the River.
By the way, it was Stephen who successfully sued Colorado in the first place.
It appears that Kansans in general were not very good stewards of their water supply. This is from Salina Journal back about water usage in the late 1980s.
“It has several wells, all drawing from the Smoky Hill River alluvial aquifer. One of its most productive wells is one the city acquired about 50 years ago from the railroad, said John Kirchner, the city’s water superintendent. The city pumped it heavily — 1 million gallons a week wasn’t unusual.
But in 1987, the city received a notice from the Kansas Water Office that it was overpumping its water right, and the city discovered that the state had granted it a right to pump only 8 million gallons a year
http://www.saljournal.com/water/rights.html
So if the water was not being used for irrigation, what would it be used for?
What do you think Western Kansas will look like if there wasn’t irrigation?
Well…so much for the Riverwalk.
Kansas has brought legal action against Colorado concerning the water in the Arkansas River in SCOTUS at least four times, IIRC; the first was about 1907; the second, 1943; the third, 1985; and the fourth, 2004. Obviously, this is a long-standing dispute.
The most recent foray concerned the payment of prejudgment interest by Colorado to Kansas, which arose following yet another Special Master’s report issued after the 1985 opinion of SCOTUS finding that Colorado had violated the Arkansas River Compact entered into between the two states in 1949 (I think; it’s about then). As I recall, in 2004, SCOTUS denied Kansas’ exception to the Special Masters’ report which set the dates for prejudgment interest to be paid.
All this is to provide, from my limited memory, a bit of legal history as to the dispute between Kansas and Colorado over the appropriation and use of the Arkansas River water.
smiley – we will find out fairly soon … after the wells run dry
Water ranks right behind oil in the money trough. The problem is, there are alternate sources of energy that could end oils dominance (and ours on it, for that matter); but there is no substitute for water.
T-Boone Pickens is buying 150,000 acres of land in Texas solely for the water rights: Over 5 billion gallons, all coming from the Ogalala aquifer. He’s also planning a water line, consisting of 8 to 10″ piping to carry the water to major markets in Texas.
What does he get for it? About $1500 per acre foot in El Paso, Dallas would pay $800, San Antonio – more than $1000. At a cost of 1 to 2 billion for the pipeline, he still stands to make billions.
This for a substance man cannot survive without. This, like air, should be one of the things government should have THE major say on. Allocation of water should be finitely controlled, with each city/town/burb getting adequate supplies to meet citizens needs. Crap like ethonol plants should be at the back of list . . . way back.
We’re not talking ice tea on a hot day, we’re talking survival on the basic level. People like t-boone shouldn’t even be in the same room as the people who control the water.
Water is not a for profit game: it is something that should be paid for by every person in this country in the form of tax. The infrastructure to control and supply water will be VERY expensive, make no mistake about it. But it needs to be done, or people like t-boone will be drinking ice tea while we’re sucking dust.
An excellent source of info on water: http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/us/bulksales/texas/
Another source is Cadillac Desert by Mark Reisner (Book report, KFG)
If you are not keeping up on what’s happening to the water in this, or any, state, you really need to. I, for one, can get really protective when it comes to someone else drinking my water!
Well; here we have it in one package. The absolute best of blogging. And the absolute worst.
The best being a grass roots campaign started by kfg to open the state’s eyes to the inevitable water problems that need to be addressed.
The worst being an anonymous, hate-filled person who is free to post anything on this open forum.
It’s a rare occasionan outlander and I agree.
Ya gotta feel a little sorry for the sad little troll that is stealing kfg and now J M Walkers nics. Such an irrelevant little bit of humanity gets noticed by the editors only in the need to have their mess cleaned up. Sort of like a dog showing how big it is with a particularly sizable dump.
Hey troll? Think the editors would ever mention YOU or dedicate a thread to any sad cause close to your….bowels?
Well done getting the thread kfg! This would seem to be one issue no thoughtful person could quarrel over.
evidently, herr troll thought so much of himself, he had to post twice. Or maybe he had to have somebody both type, and read it to him.
JR and JM: Maybe the troll was temporarily blocked by the EAGLE’s “automated robot” gate.
Water is going to be very valuable. It’s the stuff of life. Kansans wake up.
I see the troll mess is still not cleaned up.
Well that’s disappointing.
Ya know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see every single blogger on this forum weigh in here with a thought or idea. Sans the trolls I mean.
That’s why I stayed up so late. I hope this makes it through the night and picks up the morning traffic.
I don’t mean to pick on anyone. I just wanna stir the pot. While there is something in the pot to stir. I seem to be good at that.
Nathan is posting about now. He’s in Iraq. My take is he is fighting for oil. He disagrees. But I bet he sure appreciates a good cold drink of water…..courtesy overpaid US contractors.
Hank and Mary Caruso have a stake here too. The sundown over the lake they live on is a sight to behold. Over a cracked and broken mudplain? Well probably a lot less scenic.
OK I’ve picked on enough folks. Not my point really. The point is that water is an issue beyond parties or loyalties or bickering or religion.
Call ksfarmgrrl the canary on the prairie. She’s been called everything else. But geez pay attention to what she has to share because she is living in the reality
that is headed this way.
I’m younger than most here. Ya know? I remember a time when there was terrible litter. Were Woodsy Owl and that crying Indian kinda “campy”? Yeah. But they made a difference.
MY idea with water is to teach kids from very little just how precious it is. Give them a ration of it. Make them make it last the day. So much for drinking, a little for a plant, some to wash with. They have left over and they share. Or they pour it into a tank for future use.
OK I was shooting for profound and I came across as shilly. You get the idea.
The one thing that unites us all is that we have each and every one of us the same proportion of water in our bodies. And that water is being used up too quickly and by a very thirsty few.
There are smart posters here on both sides. Let’s address this.
T. Boone Pickens has been buying up property and water rights in far southwest Kansas for almost 20 years.
Yes, but to keep those rights he has to use them, thus depleting their value.
Actually, DK, any use T. Boone makes of the water rights would, given the scarcity of the resource, likely result in the same achieving a higher value. I suspect he’s doing (or more accurately, his agents are doing) the minimum to retain the rights.
Thank you WE Blog site editors for cleaning up the troll droppings above.
Vaughn Tolle et al: Regarding those suits by various Kansas attorney generals, do they ever result in release of water to Kansas from the John Redmond Dam or does Kansas receive dollars in lieu of the water?
In other words, are we merely selling our share of water to Colorado? And what happens to the money received? Just curious. JWink
Vaughn Tolle: Hope you notice my questions above … I am curious if those “water” lawsuits against Colorado are merely window dressing to disguise the selling of our water to Colorado?
Ben Huie: I’m just reading the EAGLE’s “Gateways to the Arkansas” article in yesterday’s paper. Good article and see your name in it. Of course, I wonder what will happen if the Arkansas River “dry line” actually reaches Wichita.
Years ago, I belonged to a Mo/Ks/Ark rivers group and attended a meeting in the White House in Washington but hazy on the main issues now.
I recently rapid read a book at the downtown library describing some central Kansas rivers by a former head ot the Kansas Water Resources Board. I noticed he said most of our central Kansas streams are becoming polluted with salt from the underground salt stratas. I’m not up to date on municipal water treatment procedures — I hope methods are in place to remove this salt.
As you probably know, Eleanor Roosevelt came to Kansas in the 1930’s to promote the growth of “wind breaks,” that is, rows of trees along our highways to provide cover for wildlife and hold moisture in our environment. Many of these windbreaks can still be seen along highway 54, west of Kingman, for example. Unfortunately, the Kansas Highway Department periodically reduces these “mini forests” for highway widening projects.
Good luck in your efforts to protect the Arkansas River environment.