Kansas committee hears bill to create State Conservation Fund, boost water-plan transfers

The Senate Committee on Agriculture on Monday heard testimony on House Bill 2,113, which would create a State Conservation Fund, require a recurring $2.5 million transfer from the State General Fund beginning July 1, 2025, and raise several planned transfers into the State Water Plan Fund and its subaccounts.

Revisor Lawrence told the committee that "House Bill 2,113, as amended by House Committee, relates to funding for conservation and certain water programs" and described the bill's main provisions, including a provision that would increase the scheduled State General Fund transfer to the State Water Plan Fund from $35 million to $55 million and extend that transfer into July 2027.

The bill would direct $2,500,000 annually into a newly created State Conservation Fund and authorize the Department of Agriculture's Division of Conservation to issue rules for how those funds are spent. Money in the conservation fund would be used for a 2-to-1 match of state to nonstate or private monies and to support domestic water-quality sampling, according to the revisor's presentation. The bill would also increase the planned transfer to the water technical assistance fund from $5 million to $7 million and raise the water projects grant fund transfer from $12 million to $18 million. The revisor said the bill would take effect upon publication in the Kansas Register and noted it passed the House 106-15.

Why it matters: Supporters said the additional funding would expand grant and technical-assistance capacity for small towns and conservation projects and help build a water-quality database. Representative Jim Minnick, who appeared as a conferee, said the bill aims to add domestic well-sampling data to the Kansas Geological Survey's water database, which he said currently contains roughly 160 points concentrated in small municipals. "We are not gonna make any water. It's a finite resource," Representative Minnick said, arguing for conserving and documenting quality and quantity information.

Conferees from agriculture and municipal groups described how the funds would be used. Aaron Popelka of the Kansas Livestock Association said livestock water fees already support cost-share projects to make watering systems more efficient; he said demand exceeded available funds when the program began and that applicants outnumbered funding by "almost three times." Wendy Stark of the League of Kansas Municipalities described the backlog of small-city needs and supplied the committee with lists of applicants and awardees; she told the committee that many applicants are cities of 500 people or fewer. A representative of Kansas Municipal Utilities said the bill is part of a suite of legislation intended to create a more systematic, long-term approach to municipal water infrastructure and not merely year-to-year triage.

Kansas Association of Conservation Districts representative Sean Miller told the committee that money earmarked in a recent budget for a related 2-to-1 match program was removed from the Department of Agriculture budget, and that the amounts in House Bill 2,113 could be key to operating those programs if the funding is not restored elsewhere.

Discussion and next steps: Committee members asked how the bill interacts with prior legislation, including House Bill 2,302 from 2023 and Senate Bill 36 (a related 2-to-1 match measure), and whether funds would go directly to conservation districts or to a broader set of recipients. Revisor Lawrence and witnesses said the Division of Conservation would write rules and solicit stakeholder input to define eligible recipients and processes. The committee closed the hearing on House Bill 2,113; no committee vote on passage occurred during the session.

Ending: Several organizations filed written proponent testimony, including the Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Rural Water Association, Kansas Society of Professional Engineers and others. Committee members said they would continue to coordinate budget and statutory language with the water office and agencies in coming days.