There is no Kansas as we know it without the Ogallala aquifer.
This story is part four of a series
Read part one, the Kansas Legislature is trying again to ban gender-affirming care for minors, here.
Read part two, “People are getting pounded with this property tax,” so the Kansas Legislature is preparing to cut property taxes, here.
Read part three, medical marijuana could be debated for a fifth year in a row after the issue almost passed in 2021, here.
The aquifer provides clean drinking water and a vital source of water for crops. If the aquifer dries up, so too will many farms and towns in western Kansas.
And make no mistake, the Ogallala aquifer is drying up. The Kansas Water Office estimates more than 100 communities are at risk of running out of water in the next 25 years.
Kansas sits at a crossroads, Gov. Laura Kelly said at the State of the State address Wednesday. Do nothing and the farming industry and western Kansas will dry up. Or invest in water preservation and preserve the Ogallala.
“Forget making it 75 years down the road — some parts of western Kansas don’t have groundwater enough to last another 25 years,” Kelly said.
Kelly has proposed preserving the aquifer. She wants to invest another $30 million in water preservation, which she said would spur $90 million in investment annually.Â
She also wants to create the Office of Natural Resources. Today, water in Kansas is managed by 14 different groundwater management districts. She wants to consolidate them into one centralized office.
The money and office are part of a 10-year strategic plan that is similar to the state’s 10-year highway plan. Future projects would be funded according to five priority areas: water quantity/aquifer, water quality, reservoirs, resiliency, and research and education.
“We have already invested substantial resources in time, money and political capital,” Kelly said. “We stand ready to support the Legislature’s efforts in any way we can to solve our state’s most pressing problem.”
What has the Legislature already done?
Kansas first passed a water plan in 1981. Then in 1989 a fund was created. That plan got $8 million in funding in a good year.
“We didn’t always get that,” Connie Owen, director of the Kansas Water Office, told the House Committee on Water.
Lawmakers have since put in another $35 million. Groundwater management districts are also required to come up with water conservation plans by July 1, 2026.
Who supports the proposal?
Protecting water in Kansas is a bipartisan issue. The law requiring groundwater conservation plans, approved in 2023, passed 34-6 in the Senate and 116-6 in the House.
Rep. Jim Minnix, a Scott City Republican, is the chair of the House water committee and a farmer. The Beacon talked to Minnix before Kelly’s proposal on Wednesday, but he said the Ogallala is a top priority for him.
Kansas can’t do nothing. The Ogallala aquifer has been slowly drying up for decades, and no action means it will eventually become too dry for farming, which would cripple the state.
The aquifer isn’t simply an underground lake. It’s hundreds of thousands of miles of water jammed between rocks and sediment. Wells that run deep into the earth extract that. Rainwater seeps into the ground and slowly replenishes the aquifer, but not nearly fast enough to compensate for all the water extracted for farming and other needs in Kansas.
Minnix hopes future technology could continue to extend the aquifer’s lifetime, but the state needs to protect the water it has now for that to happen. Despite the gloomy projections, Minnix said there’s hope.
“We can sure extend the aquifer for many, many years,” he said.
Who opposes the proposal?
There is no real opposition to water preservation. But the Ogallala isn’t the only water that needs to be preserved.
Water reservoirs in Kansas are filling with dirt and shrinking in size. And a $17 million municipal drinking and wastewater grant had $380 million in requests, overwhelming the amount set aside for the program. Minnix said that’s one fund the Legislature is going to consider increasing.
Minnix said protecting reservoirs and the Ogallala are equally top priorities. Lead pipes also need to be addressed.
Tuttle Creek Lake is one drying water source. The reservoir is a shadow of what it once was, and scientists are attempting to pump away the built-up silt by essentially using jacuzzi-like jets to kick up debris and send it away.
Minnix is worried that could have negative downstream implications, but scientists will monitor for that.
No similar restoration project has ever happened before. If it works, Kansas could try similar methods on other reservoirs that are drying up.
“We need a little bit of time to see how this trial will work,” Minnix said.
