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TOPEKA — Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan to give farmers more flexibility in how much they irrigate over five years could force the city to stop drawing water from the Equus Beds Aquifer after it has pumped millions of dollars into it, Wichita officials say.
The proposed law would allow farmers to store up water rights from one year and use them in another year, as long as they don’t draw more than their permitted amount over five years.
Dale Goter, a lobbyist for the city, voiced concerns to the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday, saying that if farmers store up water rights and then draw large amounts during a drought, the aquifer could be reduced to a level that Wichita no longer has the right to extract more water.
Wichita’s water rights at new wells in the aquifer let the city draw water until the aquifer reaches 1993 levels, near its all-time low. During a drought, it might reach that limit.
“It is conceivable that the water pumped into the aquifer by the (aquifer storage and recharge) project may not be available for municipal use, despite the fact that the costs have been nearly completely shouldered by Wichita water users,” the city said in written testimony to the committee.
Goter said the city supports Brownback’s overall plan. But he said Wichita should have priority rights to the aquifer’s water, even if it gets drawn down to the 1993 level.
“We’re perfectly willing to share that water with irrigators. We think that’s important to sustain that industry,” he said. “But we are paying the bill for it. So at some point, the city’s access to that water is very important.”
It’s unclear if the committee will make any changes to the bill. Its chairman, Sen. Mark Taddiken, R-Clifton, said the bill hasn’t faced any formal opposition.
The city has steadily raised water rates to pay for hundreds of millions spent on its aquifer recharge project, which draws water from the Little Arkansas River during high flows, purifies it and pumps it into the aquifer for future use. That project also helps create a barrier between usable water and water that is heavily contaminated with salt and brine, mostly because of abandoned oil wells in the Burrton area from the 1930s.
Significant rain and the recharge project have replaced about 65 percent of the water drawn down over decades of agricultural and municipal use. A study of the aquifer last year showed that about 1 percent of the rebound came from the city’s first phase of the recharge project.
Last summer’s hot, dry weather drew the aquifer down again. But new phases are increasing the recharge rate several fold.
