2020 Report to the Membership GMD3 Annual Meeting Mark Rude, Executive
KS Groundwater Management Districts
GMD3 Professional staff
Draft GMD3 Management Program Update Members and partners can contribute to program document updates. Call us and let us know what you are thinking. http://www.gmd3.org/what-we-do/management-program/
GMD3 Formed under “the right” to determine our destiny regarding water use. • When first enacted, the GMD Act seemed to permit GMD's some local autonomy. • In practice since 1999 - “the right” of water users to manage groundwater has legal effect only as a discretion of state water officials. Management Program • Program document describes the nature and orderliness of thought and behavior to address Summary, water supply problems in the district. page 3-4 • MISSION • Act on a shared commitment to conserve and develop water supply to grow the social, economic and natural resources well-being of the district for current members and future generations in the
Economy, pg.5
Valuing water: includes federal tax code • Taxpayers who extract groundwater from the Ogallala for irrigation are allowed a federal tax deduction for depletion. • Revised Ruling 82-214 amplifies the previous ruling in 1965. • In computing a cost depletion, the taxpayer must be able to show the following: 1). An economic interest in certain lands overlying the Ogallala Formation from which groundwater is being extracted for irrigation of crops. 2). A water right has been issued by the State of Kansas, which grants exclusive rights to the use of the groundwater for irrigation. 3). The amount of water under said lands was established at the time of acquisition, the cost basis of water, the amount of exhaustion (water-level decline) for each of the taxable years involved, and the amount of cost depletion deduction.
GMD3 Water Rights Assistance, pgs. 5-6 KDA/DWR staff are key partners as they decide water • right matters. Public interest in a GMD (K.S.A. 82a-1020) • Chief engineer must consider impairment and all • matters of public interest. (K.S.A. 82a-711) GMD3 well drawdown guidelines. • • Gives members the well information they need to make the best decision they can affecting their water costs and water risk. • Trial period since 2017 training to DWR indicates most applications were recommended approved.
GMD3 Water Rights Assistance, pgs. 5-6 Opportunities to improve local-state consensus: Reliable orderliness - reliable agency standards in • every forum. Inadequacy of well spacing rule to demonstrate no • impairment as a standard in a declining supply to inform and secure members water risk and conservation efforts. Critical wells as impairment indicator. • Chief Engineer duty to consider GMD3 public interest. •
Water Conservation, pgs. 7-8 Wise use. Conservation is not so much about prohibiting or defeating consumption as using water wisely. Two types of water conservation : Type (1) Use efficiency - the amount of valued output per unit of water consumed. - efficiency alone will not correct aquifer depletion. Type (2) Maintaining aquifer storage - preserves stored usable supply - replenishes future storage.
Type (1) Conservation adds value by the drop in sun and wind See video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yT9yiyjB-4 and also at
Targeting conservation in special GMA’s Corrective control - a new Type (2) water conservation action. • Special Program area – Ark basin CREP example. • Special Rule area – Seward & Meade water quality rule area example. Mandates possible: • IGUCA – Area requested by GMD board or member petition (1980’s). • State rule says formal review now three years overdue. • Water right conservation area – Several hundred in GMD3 - Mandated conservation plan by chief engineer and approved by Board as a condition of water right (1990’s). • LEMA – Plan to be adopted by board and requested for implementation. (2012)
Discussion drafts - KDA/DWR statewide rules • LEMA Rules • Requirements at time of adopted plan submitted to chief engineer. • Description of legal foundation or basis for determining corrective controls if they include allocations, reductions or limitations on water rights. • Public hearing process. • Future reviews and modifications. • WCA Rules • purpose of area - either reduce water withdrawn or protect water quality. • suitability of reductions and flexibilities depend on local conditions and effects. • Sets historical water use period of 2008 through 2017 or other options of record.
Flowmeters District requirement in 1993 • About 2500 annual visits • Safe and accurate metering • Advise on flowmeter service needs • Meter face seals: Add GMD3 hefty • seal where practical. Advise and assist for DWR concerns. • Flowmeter verification tests •
Ark River Management, pg. 9 • GMD3 Upper Ark GMA – IGUCA above Garden City inclusive with area impacted by Colorado compact violations and water usability depletions. • GMD3 Lower Ark GMA - Garden City to the east Ford County line and adjacent areas of the IGUCA and tributary hydrologic system. • Natural system can inflow to underground storage space about 200,000 acre-feet per month when flowing across the district. • Likely similar for Cimarron system. • Western Water Conservation (Ark River) Projects Fund activities.
Probability of Uranium Exceeding 30 µg/L in Groundwater Miller, Watts, Ortiz, and Ivahnenko, USGS Sci. Invest. Rep. 2010-5069
2019 - HR 6018 & SR 1729 Ark River basin is shared with Colorado Flows enter but don’t leave GMD3 Ark River is a closed basin in SW Kansas
Water contamination reduces usability. Average Average annual Average Annual Annual annual uranium annual uranium uranium Sp.C., concentration, flow, load, load, Year µS/cm µg/L ft3/sec ton/yr lbs/yr 2012 4,271 73.0 28.7 2.07 4,140 2013 4,395 75.9 26.9 2.01 4,020 2014 3,813 62.7 92.1 5.68 11,400 2015 3,230 50.1 196.1 9.68 19,400 2016 3,285 51.3 201.5 10.20 20,400 2017 3,324 52.1 234.6 12.03 24,100 2018 3,409 53.9 206.6 10.96 21,900 KGS Open-File Report 2017-2, updated January 2019. Uranium/ mineralization concern River flow into GMD3 - a point source pollutant discharge into aquifer
Water Plan and Interstate management, pg.10 • Advise funding Kansas Water Plan needs with 1/10 cent sales tax. • Seek State encouragement in management program partnerships with the Water Office and Water Authority per K.S.A. 82a- 928(p). • Advise and assist Water Office/Authority – See Board letter of July 22, 2019 at: http://gmd3.org/pdf/State_Water_Plan_FY2021_Budget.pdf )
Securing Interstate Waters……2016, Still need State Water Planning… “Forecasters Warn Everyone Along Missouri River To Brace For Another Year Of ■ Flooding” All waters leaving Kansas? ■ Quantification of volumes? – Process – Options identified in Aqueduct update ■ Reviewed by Pope and Rolfs in 2015 Study ■ 2015 Legislation – Sen Sub for HB 2059/SB 332 ■ KWA action regarding HB 2059 apposed study. ■ KWO Tweet, KS Water Day Nothing yet maintained by KWO/KWA partners to move Kansas forward. ■ Visi sion: Complete evaluation of large water transf sfers including legal, enviro ronmental, economic and other issues
Interstate Water Conservation Conserved water for Upper Ark • and adjacent basins. Major Aquifer storage capacities. • Declining energy cost projections. • Shared western demand concerns. • Unfunded authority: Implement PL • 90-537 (1965) to include GMD3 needs with funding - the Secretary of the Interior shall conduct investigations to plan for future western US water needs. Gavins Point releases at 35,000 • cubic feet per second (cfs). Typically, winter releases are
Federal affairs and conferencing with Districts in other states GMDA - a NWRA National Groundwater Caucus Kansas Water Congress is the state association member of NWRA
Models and Water Quality, page 11 Groundwater calculations and models require improvements and updates. GMD3 guessed projections and conjecture prior to new model update in 2021.
Questions & Discussion GMD3 Annual meeting ■ March 2020
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