Kansas agencies outline how new State Water Plan transfers will fund reservoir, groundwater and small-town projects

The Kansas Water Office and partner state agencies told the House Committee on Water on Tuesday that the Legislature's recent transfer to the State Water Plan Fund under Senate Sub. for House Bill 2302 will finance reservoir protection, groundwater projects and grants for small communities.

Connie Owen, director of the Kansas Water Office, said the statute creates a five-year transfer of $35,000,000 a year into the State Water Plan Fund and that $18,000,000 of that amount goes to the Water Office budget for FY24 allocations and related programs.

The transfer funds two newly created grant programs administered through the Water Office: a Technical Assistance Grant targeted primarily to communities of about 2,000 people or fewer, and a Water Projects Grant for infrastructure needs such as treatment upgrades and sewer lines. Owen told the committee the two grant pots initially were set at $7,500,000 (technical assistance) and $19,500,000 (projects), and that an additional $10,000,000 was later added to the grant programs.

Nut graf: Committee members heard agencies describe how the new money will be divided among interagency priorities — reservoir sediment-reduction projects, groundwater studies and monitoring, dam repairs, irrigation efficiency and emergency response — and how demand already far exceeds available funding.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported it received $5,800,000 in FY24 from the State Water Plan Fund under HB2302 and that it directed $3,200,000 of that to small-town drinking- and wastewater infrastructure projects. Leo Henning, deputy secretary and director of environment at KDHE, told lawmakers that the FY24 outlays included drinking-water facility work for Leon and lagoon projects in Riley County. He also said KDHE spent about $1,500,000 on contamination remediation at orphan sites and directed $1,000,000 to the Kansas Geological Survey to begin a groundwater quality monitoring network.

Earl Lewis, chief engineering director at the Division of Water Resources in the Department of Agriculture, described several uses of the larger package of funds. He said the governor set aside $7,000,000 as a one-time investment for Rattlesnake Creek, and the division dedicated roughly $2,500,000 of that to leasing water rights to reduce stream depletion and support the nearby National Wildlife Refuge. Lewis said the leasing effort targeted roughly 4,000 acre-feet of water rights and that the local community added about $1,300,000 in incentives to the leasing pool.

Lewis also said $3,000,000 was directed to high-hazard dam construction and rehabilitation in FY24 and FY25 and that the funding has addressed about 20 to 25 dams in the first two years. He described an irrigation-technology cost-share program that was expanded to match a federal USDA grant of about $25,000,000 over five years; state matching dollars plus county and producer cost-share are part of that program.

Matt Inder, assistant director at the Kansas Water Office, described the Kansas Reservoir Protection Initiative as an ongoing program that uses targeted, watershed-level incentives for sediment-reduction conservation practices. "The primary focus of those funds is financial assistance support for producers within prioritized areas of those watersheds to implement sediment-reducing conservation practice implementation," Inder said, naming cover-crop incentive payments as a principal activity.

The agencies shared demand figures to illustrate unmet need: in the most recent application cycle, technical assistance grant requests totaled about $29,000,000 when $7,500,000 was available, and water-project applications requested about $207,000,000 when $19,500,000 was available.

Connie Owen also noted a federal change that will lower the state's long-term cost for reservoir storage debt: she said Congress's recent Water Resources Development Act altered interest treatment from compound to simple interest, a change the Water Office estimated will save Kansas roughly $41,000,000.

The committee asked follow-up questions about specific programs, including the status of the Rattlesnake Creek pilot augmentation project (an environmental impact statement is at the Bureau of Reclamation headquarters for final review, with public review expected in February) and progress on pilot water-injection dredging at Tuttle Creek (a contractor has been selected and operations are scheduled to begin this spring). KDHE said it has identified roughly 140 orphan contaminated sites statewide and will continue remediation work.

Ending: Committee chair Jim Minnicks said the committee will receive additional briefings next week from the Kansas Water Authority chair and other staff with the annual report and the strategic implementation framework. The agencies told lawmakers the new funding is starting to flow but that demand greatly exceeds available resources.