Kansas Water Authority urges two‑year ramp‑up to 10‑year program, seeks expanded funding for reservoirs, contamination and technical assistance

Don Buehler, chair of the Kansas Water Authority, told the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources on the authority's annual report and implementation framework that demand for state water funding far outstrips available dollars: “we saw 309 applications totaling $380,000,000 in requests, of which we had $18,000,000 available to award. $18,000,000 is a lot of money.”

The report and Julie Lorenz’s implementation presentation lay out an approach the authority says is both “bold and practical”: a two‑year ramp‑up to a 10‑year program that would shift state spending from many small line items to outcome‑driven investment buckets. The framework models a baseline program of $60 million a year with a $30 million enhancement (a $90 million program), and describes a target scenario that Kansans in stakeholder outreach supported of roughly $140 million annually for a fully scaled ten‑year program.

Why it matters: the authority described three core statewide problems — aquifer depletion in western Kansas, reservoir sedimentation and aging infrastructure in the east, and widespread water‑quality impairments — and argued the new framework would prioritize projects that provide measurable, regional outcomes. The report says two‑thirds of Kansans rely on reservoirs for drinking water and that counties overlying key aquifers generate about $57 billion in annual GDP.

Key numbers and program design - Applications and need: Fiscal‑year 2024 saw 309 applications requesting about $380 million with $18 million available; fiscal‑year 2025 saw 286 applications requesting about $227 million with $27 million available. Those figures, the authority said, indicate statewide demand far…