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Kansas water official backs map-based notices for water-right applications
Summary
A Division of Water Resources official told the Committee on Water that House Bill 24-77 would replace posting full applications with an interactive map and require notice to all landowners within a half-mile of a point of diversion, limiting exposure of personal data and centralizing notice responsibilities at the Division.
Lane Letourneau, water appropriation program manager for the Kansas Department of Agriculture's Division of Water Resources, told the Committee on Water that House Bill 24-77 would change how the state informs the public about water-right applications.
"We're gonna have a map on our website with the location of the point of diversion," Letourneau said, describing a plan to publish basic data — file number, location, rate, quantity and use — rather than the complete application. He said the current requirement to post full applications can expose phone numbers, Social Security numbers and email addresses and that a map-based approach would reduce that exposure while keeping orders available online.
Under current law the Division posts complete applications and works with the groundwater management district (GMD) to notify water-right owners within a half-mile of pending requests under several KSA sections. HB 24-77 would require the Division to (1) publish a map showing diversion locations and pertinent information for applications filed under KSA 82a-711 and (2) notify all landowners — not only water-right owners with a point of diversion — within a half-mile of such applications. The bill would remove some earlier statutory cross-references and make conforming edits; it becomes effective on publication in the statute book.
Committee members asked whether the changes would weaken protections for long-term residents whose domestic water rights might be impaired. Letourneau said domestic rights are treated the same as other water rights, that domestic rights are not required to be registered with the Division and that, if impairment is alleged, the Division investigates and would curtail junior rights to protect a senior right.
Members also raised access questions about putting notices primarily on a website. Letourneau said the applicant's phone number would not appear on the public map; Division contact information and field offices and conservation districts would remain available for people without internet access.
The committee took public testimony on HB 24-77 and closed the record; no committee vote was taken on the bill at this meeting. Chair closed the public testimony and moved on to other agenda items.
