DWR Currents

February 20, 2012

DWR’s plan for dealing with extra workload
Drought conditions persist for most of the state
Farmer, rancher, banker, state legislator who promoted experimental irrigation dams
Upcoming events

DWR’s plan for dealing with extra workload
Response to the KDA/DWR 2011 Drought Emergency Term Permit program was unanticipated and overwhelming.  DWR initially planned to be able to process the drought applications in parallel with other regular applications.   As drought conditions worsened and the number of participants in the drought program grew throughout the summer, DWR was forced to divert all available resources to the drought term permits.  Immediate review of drought applications was necessary to authorize additional pumping during 2011 as soon as possible.

Regular permits:
While the drought term permits consumed all permitting staff resources, the backlog of pending applications grew substantially, as did the processing time. See table below.

Right:  DWR received more than 2250 drought applications, of which more than 1000 were received during the last few weeks of 2011. (Click to enlarge image.)

Anticipated work ahead:
Legislation to change the Multi-Year Flex Account (MYFA) program has now been passed by the Kansas Legislature and we expect that a significant number of the drought term permit holders will file applications to convert to multi-year flex accounts, if signed by Governor Brownback.  DWR is also facing increasing numbers of temporary applications for oil and natural gas exploration, including hydraulic fracturing.

Plan for dealing with current backlog and anticipated ahead:
We are currently implementing the following plan to finish off the drought term permit work, restore normal application processing, and prepare for the work ahead. The plan includes:

1. Hiring additional technical field office staff using fees from the drought term applications to finish off the drought term permit work, provide support for multi-year flex account permitting, and catch up on the backlog of new and change applications.
2. Re-starting normal permit processing in Topeka and expanding delegations to our field offices to allow them to better support change application processing.
3. Temporarily assigning more non-permitting DWR staff and even staff from other programs to process drought term permits.
4. Hiring more temporary support staff to help us catch-up.

We expect to have drought term permit processing completed by May 1 and to have regular permit processing to near normal levels within 10-12 weeks from hiring and training of new staff.

Drought conditions persist for most of the state
Although the U.S. Drought Monitor indicates drought conditions have improved in some portions of the state since last fall, they continue to show approximately 61 percent of the state in some category of drought as of Feb. 14. 

The slight improvement over the winter months was mostly due to above normal precipitation conditions for much of the state during December and then again during early February.  According to the National Weather Service (NWS), very heavy rain soaked an area centered on south-central Kansas, with Feb. 2-4 totals reaching 4.34 inches in Medicine Lodge and 2.87 inches in Wichita. Both Medicine Lodge and Wichita set calendar-day precipitation records for February with these storms.

In contrast to rainfall during December and February, Kansas recorded its third driest January.  Dodge City NWS recorded only 0.07 inches of precipitation in January, which is 0.51 inches below normal.  Topeka, which received only 0.02 inches of precipitation, had its 2nd driest January on record.  According to the Jan. 31 USDA and NWS Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin, the unusually warm, dry and windy January had decreased soil moisture having a negative effect on winter wheat conditions in Kansas.  

La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean appear to have peaked in January, but there remains a chance that weather conditions will remain warmer and drier than normal until mid to late summer.  The Climate Prediction Center continues to reflect these conditions in their latest seasonal drought outlook, issued Feb. 16.

Another climate variable contributing to the warm and dry winter is the Arctic Oscillation (AO), a large-scale climate pattern that influences weather throughout the Northern Hemisphere.  This climatic phenomenon has resulted in extreme weather conditions in Europe and could soon bring a return of cooler weather conditions to North America as well.  Unlike the last two winters, this year has been dominated by a positive phase AO, which typically results in warmer-than-average temperatures and lower snowfall amounts.

Right:  The ongoing La Niña event favors drought persistence and development for the next 3 months across the southern tier of States, from southern California eastward into Florida and northward into the Carolinas.

Below:  January precipitation - departure from normal (left) and the latest Kansas detail of the U.S. Drought Monitor (right)

Farmer, rancher, banker, state legislator who promoted experimental irrigation dams
The Kansas State Historical Society’s Special Exhibits Gallery You Are Here: Putting Kansas on the Map includes a water-focused map created by James Caleb Hopper.

In the opening years of the 20th century, Hopper advocated the building of a great canal across Kansas. This canal, he adamantly maintained, would form an artificial river by taking advantage of the natural decline in elevation from north to south by bringing South Dakota’s water from the Black Hills through Nebraska and Kansas and ending in Oklahoma’s Red River. A writer and promoter of water conservation, it was said of him by William Connelly, author of A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, that “The question of saving the surplus rainfall lies nearest his heart, and he will count it his greatest of many achievements when every farmer who owns a farm ‘dams his draws’ and subirrigates his land and plants trees, developing a sort of forest reserve on each individual farm.”  Hopper gained the support of U.S. Congressman George A. Neeley (also of Kansas) and hoped to get government backing for the canal, but it never materialized.

Right: This map shows a bird's-eye view of a landscape near Ness City, including an inset map at upper right featuring a proposed four-state canal system extending from South Dakota to Oklahoma. The main illustration depicts a dammed Walnut River (actually, Walnut Creek) crossing a canal that stretches to Ness City on the horizon. A public highway parallels the canal, which is surrounded by lush irrigated fields and prosperous farmsteads. (Click on image to enlarge -Source: Kansas Memory)

This 1915 illustration is on display as part of the Kansas State Historical Society’s Special Exhibits Gallery You Are Here: Putting Kansas on the Map, until April 29.


Upcoming events

• Feb. 21-22: Central Plains Irrigation Conference and Expo (Colby)
• Feb. 29: Kansas Water Issues Forum (Wichita)
• Mar. 1: Kansas Water Issues Forum (Hays)
• Mar. 1: DWR annual water use reports due in Topeka
• Mar. 1: Basics of the National Flood Insurance Program (Independence)
• Mar. 8: Northwest Kansas GMD No. 4 Board Meeting (Colby)
• Mar. 8: Big Bend GMD No. 5 Board Meeting (Stafford)
• Mar. 13: Equus Beds GMD No. 2 Board Meeting (Halstead)
• Mar. 14: Southwest Kansas GMD No. 3 Annual and Board Meetings (Liberal)
• Mar. 20: Western Kansas GMD 1 Annual and Board Meetings (Sharon Springs)
• Mar 27-29: 45th Annual KRWA Conference (Wichita)