8/27/2010
Salina Journal

By MIKE CORN

Special to the Salina Journal

RUSSELL -- The wheels of water development move at an agonizingly slow pace.

That much was evident Wednesday, when the Lake Wilson stakeholder committee gathered to look at who might be included in a study as potential users of water from Wilson Lake.

They learned the final feasibility study -- the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' report to determine if it's even worth getting water from the lake -- likely won't be ready until the first part of 2014.

Construction of a water treatment facility, if it is indeed feasible, might not even commence until 2020.

But Kansas Water Office Assistant Director Earl Lewis recommended it's best to include potential users now rather than piecemeal any study to determine if water is available.

141-page study

Members also spent considerable time talking about a table included in a recently released 141-page study detailing the amount of water that might be needed from Wilson by area communities in 2050.

The amount is the difference between what existing supplies are projected to be able to produce and the total demand.

In 2050, demand could outpace supply by about 5 million gallons a day.

To supply that amount from Wilson, given its high salt content, it's estimated that an average of 10.4 million gallons a day would need to be withdrawn. That's 11,648 acre-feet of water annually.

Because it's the largest community in the region, Hays would have the greatest demand, requiring about half of the total water consumed, or 2.6 million gallons a day.

Russell would require about 1.3 million gallons. Post Rock Rural Water District would require 1.1 million gallons a day, leaving the remaining demand to the communities of Ellsworth, Victoria, Wilson, Sylvan Grove and Bunker Hill.

Currently, no water is withdrawn from the lake, which was built for flood control, irrigation, navigation, recreation, fish and wildlife and water quality purposes.

A lot of salt

That lack of use primarily is due to the lake water's high salt content, which would require extensive treatment to make it suitable for drinking. That's why the raw water demands would be sharply higher than projected deficits.

While increased demand was the impetus for looking to Wilson Lake as a potential source of water, committee members learned that evolving drinking water standards -- more onerous because smaller communities are unable to pay treatment costs -- could force some communities to look to Wilson for drinking water supplies.

If the Environmental Protection Agency lowers the standards for nitrates, said Dan Wells, district environmental administrator for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, many communities might have difficulty meeting those levels. The same could be true for iron and manganese.

Currently, he said, the standard for nitrates is 10 parts per million. The EPA is considering dropping that to either 2 or 4 ppm.

"If that happens, that's going to hit the systems," Wells said of area water supplies.

High nitrate levels are a result of fertilizers, animal and human waste.

"Some of it's naturally occurring, too," he said.

Generally, surface water supplies, such as Wilson or water from the Ogallala Aquifer, are unaffected by nitrates.

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