Committee hears cleanup, allocation changes to multiyear flex accounts in Senate Bill 58

The Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 58, which would amend provisions governing multiyear flex accounts (MIFAs) that allow groundwater-right holders to manage irrigation allocations over a five-year window.

Reviser Lawrence of the Revisor's Office told the committee the bill would amend 82A736 to reorganize, simplify and in some places substantively change how MIFA allocations are calculated. "Most of the substantive changes are related to the amendment that would modify allocation of water in a MIFA," Lawrence said, noting the bill consolidates multiple allocation options into a single calculation.

Lane Letourneau, Water Appropriation Program Manager, Kansas Department of Agriculture Division of Water Resources, said the department supports the bill's move to a single, simpler allocation method and expects the change to reduce processing times. "The MIFA is a term permit for a water right that we suspend the base water right," Letourneau said. He described the proposed allocation as five times the product of the county's average net irrigation requirement multiplied by irrigated acres and increased by 10 percent to account for irrigation inefficiencies.

Letourneau told the committee the bill would: authorize a MIFA for up to five years; replace several existing allocation options with a single calculation; shift program administration costs to the Water Appropriation Certification Fund; strike an explicit penalties provision (which the reviser said is covered elsewhere in the Water Appropriations Act); and change the reporting cadence to the Legislature from annually to once every three years. The bill would take effect July 1, 2025, upon publication in the statute book, the reviser said.

Representatives of agriculture and groundwater districts testified in support or neutral. Aaron Popelka of the Kansas Livestock Association said the association supports the bill and in particular the move away from historical-use calculations, which his group and others have said could incentivize overuse. Tom Taylor, acting board president of Groundwater Management District (GMD) 5, testified neutrally and described that most MIFAs in the state have historically used the net irrigation requirement calculation and cautioned about a few edge cases (for example, so-called "end gun" adjustments) that stakeholders want to ensure are handled correctly.

Committee members asked several procedural and substantive questions. Senator Bowser said she supported the simplified calculation and asked why reporting was reduced from annual to every three years; Letourneau and Senator Titus said the change reflected the five-year nature of MIFAs and that annual reports showed little year-to-year change. Senator Reichman asked whether the change would increase or decrease total water use; Letourneau answered, "I think they'll be using exactly the same amount. Absolutely."

The committee took no final vote on Senate Bill 58 during the hearing; the committee closed the hearing after receiving testimony and indicated staff and stakeholders will coordinate any technical amendments before the bill is worked further.