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Subcommittee declines $300,000 SGF for operator exam rewrite, funds plume remediation and LEP program
Summary
The panel voted down a one-time $300,000 SGF request to hire a contractor to revise the drinking-water operator exam, but approved multi-million-dollar remediation funding for a chloride plume, $350,000 for the LEP program, and other KDHE reappropriations and enhancements.
The appropriations subcommittee reviewed the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Division of Environment budget and reappropriations, approving encumbered reappropriations and several enhancements but rejecting a request to spend state general fund on an exam rewrite.
Luke Drury outlined a slate of KDHE FY2026 reappropriation requests — contamination remediation, the local environmental protection program (LEP), WRAPS/nonpoint programs, TMDL initiatives, drinking-water protection, aquifer recharge basin work, harmful algae bloom pilots and others — noting many amounts are encumbered. The committee restored encumbered amounts where appropriate and allowed two items (watershed restoration/protection and stream trash removal) to lapse. Drury calculated the FY2026 restorations at about $1.83 million.
On FY2027 enhancements, KDHE requested a $300,000 SGF appropriation to hire a contractor to validate and rewrite the certified drinking-water operator exam; staff said the current exam questions date from the early 2000s and that statutory fee caps ($25) limit revenue. KDHE staff (Kate) said attempts to raise the fee cap have failed and the program “loses about I want to say two or three $300,000 a year because we're not ... making the money that it costs to run the program.” Representative Rogers questioned the long-term costs and objected to using SGF for what he called an industry funding problem; the committee voted and the motion failed.
Separately, the committee approved a $2.4 million appropriation as an initial investment toward remediation of the Burton chloride plume (discussed in the hearing as affecting roughly 25–35 square miles, with the school district population and numerous irrigation diversions and domestic wells in the plume). KDHE staff provided numbers: about 166 irrigation diversion points and 62 domestic wells within the affected area. The committee also approved a $350,000 FY2027 enhancement for the LEP program (to assist private water wells and septic systems) and a $45,500 partial enhancement for a nonpoint source automated data-entry project that supports watershed restoration targeting.
What’s next: the committee’s amendments will go into its appropriation report. KDHE will report expected project execution and the committee requested follow-up and further tabulations on fund balances before considering additional enhancements.
