5/11/2010

By MICHAEL STRAND

Salina Journal

Especially on a damp day like Monday, talk of conserving water might seem out of place, Kansas Agriculture Secretary Josh Svaty acknowledged Monday.

"People only think about water when the river runs dry," Svaty said, addressing the Salina Noon Rotary Club.

But water issues account for roughly half of his department's spending and staffing, rain or shine.

And his department has taken on two major initiatives recently in an attempt to ensure rivers don't run dry; suing the state of Nebraska for overpumping water from the Republican River Basin and seeking to change the state's current "use it or lose it" water-rights law.

Last week, the Agriculture Department filed suit with the U.S. Supreme Court, alleging Nebraska has violated an agreement with Kansas and Colorado regarding use of Republican River water.

The allegation stems from 2006 and 2007, when Nebraska's water use was being monitored and 80,000 acre-feet more was pumped than the agreement allowed; that's roughly the amount of water a city of 100,000 would use over 10 years.

Svaty said the agreement between the states, reached in 2002, had been adopted as a court order by the U.S. Supreme Court.

He said Nebraska has since lowered its water usage, but only because the years since 2007 have been wetter.

"The second it gets drier, they're going to start using too much water again," he said, adding that Nebraska also contends that groundwater and surface water are not connected -- a claim Svaty termed "bogus."

In fact, he said, an instructional video prepared by a water district in central Nebraska specifically states that "surface water and groundwater are connected," and further says "we don't want what happened in the Republican River to happen in the Platte River."

Svaty said he thinks the video pretty much made Kansas' case, and it should be shown to the justices.

Pump or get hosed?

Svaty also spoke about his department's efforts to add "conservation" to a list of allowed "beneficial uses" for water rights.

Svaty explained that under current state law, a water right is considered abandoned if water isn't used for five consecutive years.

"We have a lot of people who would rather save the water," he said, "but they have to pump it to keep the right."

Early in this session, Svaty pushed for legislation that would allow holders of water rights to volunteer to not use their rights for years, without having to worry about losing their rights.

"It marks a new direction, toward conservation rather than just development," he said, stressing the conservation use could be changed back to irrigation in the future.

Some lawmakers wanted to try out the conservation right proposal in a handful of counties in southwest Kansas, but Svaty said he thought the plan should go forward statewide.

What happened next, he said, was familiar.

"I did what I'd done many times in the Legislature -- I lost," he said, terming the loss one of the Legislature's "Chicken Little moments."

In fact, he said, the proposal never even was discussed in a committee.

The primary objections, he said, were from people who hoped to take over unused water rights and those with concerns that people might buy up rights with no intention of using them.

"We will come back next year with the same legislation," Svaty said. "This is absolutely essential to our success -- we can't simply pump until it's dry over the next 20 years."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.

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