DWR Currents

July 13, 2010


Nebraska and Colorado File Responses to Supreme Court Pleading
On May 3, 2010, Kansas filed a pleading for U.S. Supreme Court actions in response to Nebraska’s 2005-2006 overuse of water in the Republican River basin, which violated the court’s 2003 degree.  Nebraska and Colorado filed responses on July 2.

Nebraska’s response disputes that Kansas’ issues are ripe or appropriate for the court’s consideration.  Nevertheless, in its response, Nebraska actually supports the court taking the case if the court will also consider Nebraska’s proposed accounting changes raised in the 2009 arbitration and in arbitration currently in process.  Nebraska also suggests that the court could take up the Colorado compact compliance pipeline issue that is also being arbitrated currently, assuming that Colorado asks the court to consider it.  Nebraska requests that the court defer appointing a special master to hear the case until after November 1, 2010, when the current arbitration concludes.

Right: The U.S. Supreme Court has “original jurisdiction” over interstate disputes, such as Kansas v. Nebraska and Colorado, No. 126, Original.  That means these cases do not originate in lower courts.  Instead, they are heard only by the highest court in the nation (photo courtesy of the court’s website).

Colorado did not take a position on whether the court should grant Kansas’ request, but did agree that Kansas has satisfied the dispute resolution steps that are required before a state can bring its issue to the Supreme Court.  Colorado did not ask the court to consider the pipeline issue at this time, but did assert that if the court takes the case any state can ask to expand the issues being addressed.

Kansas’ pleading and the other states’ responses are available on DWR’s Republican River Compact website, along with other information about the compact and history of the litigation.

It is uncertain when the court will decide whether to hear this case.  Since the court is in recess for the summer, it is anticipated that a decision will not be issued until this fall at the earliest.


Colorado Releases Water to South Fork Republican River
Heavy rains caused significant inflow to Bonny Reservoir last week, raising its level by four feet and increasing storage by about 5,000 acre-feet.  At the request of Colorado’s state engineer, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Bonny Reservoir, is in the process of releasing this volume down the South Fork Republican River.

The reservoir is located on the South Fork Republican River several miles west of the Colorado-Kansas state line.  As of Monday, July 12, the release was occurring at a rate of about 66 cubic feet per second (cfs) and the state-line stream gage registered a flow of 44 cfs into Kansas.  This is more than 10 times greater than the average state-line flow during this time of year based on the past eight years of record.

At this rate, it will take about a month to release 5,000 acre-feet.

Right: A graph showing the dramatic increase in the rate of discharge from Bonny Reservoir beginning July 9 (courtesy of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; click image to enlarge).

According to a July 8 article in The Yuma Pioneer, Colorado ordered the release “in the state’s continuing efforts to be in compliance with the Republican River Compact.”

Those interested in following the progress of this release may find the following websites helpful:

Reclamation’s Bonny Reservoir website

U.S. Geological Survey’s South Fork Republican River Colorado-Kansas state-line gage

For information about Colorado’s failure to comply with the compact during 2003 through 2007 and its efforts toward future compliance, see DWR’s Republican River Compact website.


Three GMDs Awarded Grants for Water Conservation Projects
On July 2, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced 28 grants under the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program.  Three of the grants were awarded for use in groundwater management districts in Kansas:

• Equus Beds Groundwater Management District No. 2 will receive $1,135,000 in federal fiscal year 2010 to improve irrigation efficiency and install flowmeters.

• Northwest Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 4 will receive $2,666,666 in federal fiscal year 2010 to convert irrigated acres to nonirrigated acres in their six designated high-priority areas, where groundwater levels have dropped substantially.

• Big Bend Groundwater Management District No. 5 will receive $572,844 in federal fiscal year 2010 to remove end guns from some center pivot irrigation systems in the Rattlesnake Creek subbasin.

Each of the GMDs will provide matching funds and in-kind services.

Right: A map of groundwater management districts in Kansas (from DWR’s website; click image to enlarge).

USDA’s news release included the following statements:

The Agricultural Water Enhancement Program provides technical and financial help to farmers and ranchers to allow them to implement activities to improve agricultural water.  The program is administered by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, which enters into agreements with conservation partners to help landowners plan and implement conservation practices in project areas established through the agreements.

To become partners, applicants submitted proposals to address the following enhancement activities:

• Water conservation or quantity restoration or enhancement projects;
• Water quality restoration or enhancement projects;
• Water quality or water conservation plan development;
• Irrigation system improvement or irrigation efficiency enhancement;
• Activities designed to mitigate the effects of drought and climate change; and
• Related activities to help achieve water quality or water conservation benefits on agricultural land.

Partner proposals were selected using a competitive process that considered several factors including statutorily defined priority areas, emphasis for water conservation activities, such as converting irrigated land to dryland farming, and help provided to farmers and ranchers to meet regulatory requirements.  Approved partners enter into multiyear agreements with NRCS to promote ground and surface water conservation or to improve water quality on eligible agricultural lands in the project area.  Once these partner agreements are in place, producers in eligible project areas may apply to participate at their local NRCS office.

Interested irrigators within GMDs 2, 4 and 5 should contact their participating GMD or local NRCS office for more details.

More information about Kansas GMDs, including contact information, is available on DWR’s Groundwater Management Districts website.


Essay Artfully Examines the History of Water Use in Kansas
A 2002 essay titled “The Art of Water and the Art of Living,” by James Sherow, associate professor of history at Kansas State University, provides a fascinating and eloquent perspective on the links between water use and economic activity in Kansas.  Recently discovered by DWR staff, Sherow’s essay prominently features George Knapp, who had a profound impact through his long career including service as Kansas irrigation commissioner and as the first chief engineer of the Kansas Board of Agriculture’s (now Department of Agriculture’s) Division of Water Resources.

Sherow writes:

“George Knapp is not a household name by any means, yet he played the pivotal role in how Kansans developed water for economic purposes, negotiated water conflicts with other states, and created laws to regulate the uses of water within the state.  The utilitarian side of the American conservation movement shaped much of Knapp’s thinking, and historians have paid considerable attention to this social and intellectual trend.  Samuel Hays, Carroll Pursell, Jeffrey Stine, Jamie W. Moore and Dorothy P. Moore, and Donald Jackson have all stressed how engineers adhered to the guiding concepts of efficiency, conservation, corporate- or business-like government, scientific methodology and objectivity, and social engineering.  Knapp strove to maintain these principles throughout his lifetime.”

Right: George Knapp was involved in Kansas water resource management from the 1910s through his retirement in the 1950s (photo courtesy of James Sherow).

The essay examines several of the key events in Kansas’ water resources history, including the development of irrigation in western Kansas, interstate river compact negotiations and litigation, and the transition of Kansas water law from the riparian doctrine to the prior appropriation doctrine.  Sherow explains how the “American conservation movement” and the “ideology of mechanism” influenced Knapp and his contemporaries.  A number of historical photographs serve to illustrate points and provide context.

One of the main themes of the essay, as suggested by its title, is the tension between economic use of water and environmental considerations.  Sherow notes:

“The history of water use in Kansas shows that George Knapp was exceptionally clever and resourceful in devising the legal, bureaucratic, and technological means by which Kansans enhanced the art of making a living.  Irrigated crops flourish and provide fodder for a flourishing livestock industry and food for a hungry world.  Cities are provided with clean water and flood control through dams and levees.  Through the soil conservation service, farmers have created a vast system of ponds controlling runoff throughout every county in the state.  Truly, the history of water shows a high degree of accomplishment in the art of making a living.  Despite this, other histories clearly support Clugston’s belief that Kansans have yet to master the art of living as litigation, groundwater depletion, degraded wetlands, and failed enterprises fill the pages of many works.  Without question, many channels in the water history of Kansas remain unexplored, and we hope that scholars will chart their courses.  In these histories of the tangled relationships of humanity with life-giving water Kansans will gain an understanding of how well they have balanced making a living with the art of living.”

The essay is available under “Historical Documents” on DWR’s History website.


Upcoming Events

• July 13: GMD 2 Board Meeting (Halstead)
• July 14: Basics of National Flood Insurance Program (Arkansas City)
• July 14: GMD 3 Board Meeting (Garden City)
• July 20: GMD 1 Board Meeting (Scott City)
• July 21: Small Dam Owners Seminar (Olathe)
• July 27-28: National Watershed Coalition Operations & Maintenance Workshop (Mayetta)
• July 28: Kansas-Oklahoma Arkansas River Compact Annual Meeting (Arkansas City)

For more information about these and other upcoming events, please check our online events listings.