GMD3 Annual Meeting Mark Rude, Executive KS Groundwater Management - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

2020 Report to the Membership

GMD3 Annual Meeting

Mark Rude, Executive

KS Groundwater Management Districts

GMD3 Professional staff

Draft GMD3 Management Program Update

http://www.gmd3.org/what-we-do/management-program/

Members and partners can contribute to program document

• updates. Call us and let

us know what you are thinking.

Management Program Summary, page 3-4

GMD3 Formed under “the right” to determine

• ur 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.

• Program document describes the nature and
• rderliness of thought and behavior to address

water supply problems in the district.

• 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

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.

Wise use. Conservation is not so much about prohibiting or defeating consumption as using water wisely.

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.

Miller, Watts, Ortiz, and Ivahnenko, USGS Sci. Invest. Rep. 2010-5069

Probability of Uranium Exceeding 30 µg/L in Groundwater

Ark River is a closed basin in SW Kansas

2019 - HR 6018 & SR 1729 Flows enter but don’t leave GMD3 Ark River basin is shared with Colorado

River flow into GMD3 - a point source pollutant discharge into aquifer

Year Average annual Sp.C., µS/cm Average annual uranium concentration, µg/L Average annual flow, ft3/sec Annual uranium load, ton/yr Annual uranium load, 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

Water contamination reduces usability.

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…

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“Forecasters Warn Everyone Along Missouri River To Brace For Another Year Of Flooding”

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All waters leaving Kansas?

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Quantification of volumes?

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Process

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Options identified in Aqueduct update

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Reviewed by Pope and Rolfs in 2015 Study

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2015 Legislation – Sen Sub for HB 2059/SB 332

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KWA action regarding HB 2059 apposed study.

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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 KWO Tweet, KS Water Day

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

• f 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

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GMD3 Annual meeting March 2020