NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Kansas U.S. Senator Jerry Moran talked to Hutch Post when he was in Hutchinson last week about the ongoing issues with water rights related to the Quivira Wildlife Refuge.
"In the last administration, we were successful in helping the Groundwater Management District and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reach a memorandum of how to handle this issue of water rights. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service generally has the senior water rights holders to many of the irrigators in the Rattlesnake Creek watershed area. By Kansas law, senior rights prevail over junior rights. We were trying to find a way through this memorandum, that there would be some cooperation and give the Groundwater Management District an opportunity to do some things, including voluntary conservation, elimination of the ends on irrigation equipment and augmentation, bringing water in from another watershed to augment the water in Quivira."
The Fish and Wildlife Service has asked for their senior water rights. That case is pending at the state level.
The Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told me that this was just a necessary step for them to take to prod this process along, to move it more quickly," Moran said. "If the Division of Water Resources, and seemingly by law they will reach this conclusion, will eliminate or reduce the water rights of the junior right holders, the consequences to Kansas and particularly to central Kansas are overwhelming. It's expected to be a billion dollar reduction in economic activity in those eight counties."
The eight counties are Kiowa, Edwards, Pawnee, Barton, Stafford, Pratt, Rice and Reno. Stafford, Kiowa, and Edwards counties cover more than 82% of the watershed area.
"We've asked the Governor and state legislators and other officials in Kansas to weigh in with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," Moran said. "It troubles me that we, and I've been involved in these efforts, will try to attract businesses to Kansas, I was a supporter and was involved in the effort to bring Panasonic to Kansas. It's expected to be a two and a half billion dollar economic addition to our state. But, if we don't take care of what we have, we may lose up to a billion dollars. This just needs to be at the forefront of state and federal attention to try to resolve this before it's too late and damages the Kansas economy, agriculture and others."
The towns of Stafford, St. John and Macksville have water rights that are junior to the ones the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are claiming.
"The goal here is to get pressure on, or request, or a sense of a desire to make things work better, so that there is water there for Quivira, for wildlife and water available for irrigation," Moran said. "It will not be the same, but could we do something that's not so devastating."
The wildlife refuge holds a state water right that was established in 1957.
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