Kansas water task force opens with charge to identify risks, options and funding; state officials outline existing grants and fund structure

The bipartisan water program task force convened its first meeting to "identify the risks to current and future water supply, determine how to approach those risks, and find a way to pay for solutions," said Senator Kenny Titus, co-chair, at the opening of a Webex session that included legislators, state agency directors and local water managers.

The task force will begin by collecting information and hearing agency presentations, then move to designing approaches and, finally, recommending funding strategies over the next 18 months. Senator Titus said the group will accept public comment at some online meetings and at a planned first in-person meeting to be scheduled later.

Connie Owen, director of the Kansas Water Office, provided a state-level summary of water management roles, planning and funding. Owen said the water office does not regulate water but serves as the state—s policy and planning arm and prepares the Kansas Water Plan for review by the Kansas Water Authority and the public. She described the plan—s five guiding principles: conserve the High Plains aquifer, protect reservoirs, improve water quality, reduce vulnerability to extreme events and increase public awareness.

Owen also outlined the State Water Plan Fund and a recent legislative grant program. The State Water Plan Fund, created in 1989, is the state fund that supports programs recommended in the Kansas Water Plan and currently stands at about $40 million per year, she said. A recent infusion created by House Bill 2302 set aside $17 million in grant money targeted at communities of 2,000 people or fewer; Owen said $5 million of that is for technical-assistance grants and $12 million is for water-project construction, repair and technical work. She said an additional $35 million was added to related water funding in recent legislative action, divided as $18 million to the State Water Plan Fund and $17 million to the grant programs.

Owen described the fund—s revenue sources as a mix of statutory transfers and fees: specifically, statutory transfers of $6 million annually from the State General Fund and $2 million from the Economic Development Initiatives Fund, along with various fees. She told the task force that the State Water Plan Fund had been underfunded for many years and that recent full statutory transfers have helped reduce a historical arrearage she said had reached about $80 million when transfers were missed in prior years.

The water office administers the HB 2302 grant programs and presented a map showing many more grant applications than available funding; Owen said the grants are set to sunset after five years and emphasized the need for renewal or expansion. She also described the state—s regional advisory committees, the Kansas Water Authority (a 13-member voting board plus ex officio members) and the state—s public outreach and planning process, including the 2022 Kansas Water Plan update that incorporated more than 300 public comments.

Task force co-chair Representative Jim Minnicks and other members asked about specific grant maps and about water-quality enforcement revenue. Owen said the grant map shown represented applications submitted and not only funded projects; a question about pollution fines was referred to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment for a future meeting.

Why it matters: The first meeting set the task force—s agenda and provided members with the fiscal and institutional context for future recommendations. The State Water Plan Fund and HB 2302 grant program already provide state-level tools and impose limits on what the task force can immediately recommend without new legislative funding or statutory changes.

The panel and the task force agreed to gather follow-up questions from members via staff and to continue agency presentations at upcoming meetings.