II. HOUSE SUBSTITUTE FOR SENATE BILL 287

The draft reports resulting from this contract will be prepared for the purposes of addressing the following two components of House Substitute for Senate Bill 287:

A. The Kansas Water Authority shall study and develop recommendations related to aquifer resources, recharge rates, availability of surface water resources and the long-term prospects related to any necessary transition to dryland farming in areas of the state to maintain sustainable yield and minimum streamflow levels. Report to the Legislature due on or before January 8, 2001.

B. The Kansas Water Authority shall study and develop recommendations related to the potential for competing water needs for at least the next 20 years and the means of addressing the competition. Report to the Legislature due on or before January 8, 2001.

III. RELEVANCE TO KANSAS WATER PLAN REFERENCE

BASIN SECTIONS: Lower Arkansas; Upper Arkansas; Cimarron; Upper Republican; Smoky Hill-Saline; Solomon.

IV. RELEVANCE TO KANSAS WATER PLAN 2010 OBJECTIVES

WATER CONSERVATION

By 2010, reduce the number of public water suppliers with excessive "unaccounted for" water by first targeting those with 30 percent or more. By 2010, reduce the number of irrigation points of diversion for which the acre feet per acre (AF/A) water use exceeds the respective regional AF/A standard (1.0 AF/A in eastern Kansas, 1.5 AF/A in central Kansas, 2.0 AF/A in western Kansas) and those that overpump the amount authorized by their water rights.

WATER RIGHT MANAGEMENT

By 2010, reduce water level decline rates within the Ogallala Aquifer and implement enhanced water management in targeted areas.

WATER QUALITY PROTECTION

By 2010, significantly increase the percentage of stream miles and lake acres as recommended by the basin advisory committees which fully support their designated uses as identified in the Kansas Surface Water Quality Standards.

WATER QUALITY REMEDIATION

By 2010, significantly reduce the percentage of monitoring network wells (all networks) contaminated by nitrate, chlorides, sulfates or volatile organic chemicals caused by human activity.
 
 

V. SCOPE OF WORK

A. Study, describe, and provide technical input for the development of KWA recommendations related to aquifer resources, recharge rates, availability of surface water resources and the long-term prospects related to any necessary transition to dryland farming in areas of the state to maintain sustainable yields and minimum streamflow levels by assembling into a common, accessible database information addressing the following features:

1. Aquifer Resources:
a. Identify the amount or volume of available ground water
b. Characterize the quality of available ground water
c. Identify the availability, accessibility and usability for beneficial potential uses.
d. To the extent possible, determine changes in the ground water characteristics of items A1a-c over time from pre-development to 1979, 1989, and 1999 or other time frame based on available data.
2. The estimated annual recharge rates, including:
a. Natural recharge
b. Human induced recharge (e.g. Equus Beds Aquifer)
c. Temporal and spatial trends in items 2a-b with specific consideration of non-point or non-stream induced recharge (including land use effects), stream recharge and relationship to flow, and factors controlling recharge (e.g. land use/land cover, soils, or climate).
3. The availability of overlying surface water resources:
a. Identify the flow rates and volumes
b. Characterize the water quality and TMDL impairment
c. Identify the availability, accessibility and usability for beneficial purposes and potential uses
d. Establish changes in the surface water characteristics of items 3a-c over time from pre-development 1999, and to 1979, 1989, or other appropriate time frames as agreed.
e. Establish if the minimum desirable stream flow requirements have been met.
4. Long-term prospects related to any necessary transition to dryland farming in areas of the state to maintain sustainable yields and minimum desirable streamflow.
a. Changes in water use required to attain sustainable yield in presently depleting areas using the zero-depletion model as a default approach
b. Implications for irrigated/dryland agriculture of item 1 and the failure to attain or maintain sustainable yields.
c. The implications of minimum desirable streamflow for agriculture.

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The KGS shall deliver to the Kansas Water Office, 901 SW Kansas Ave., Topeka, KS, 66612-1249, the following items:

ITEM 1. A draft version of the basic components of a High Plains Aquifer Atlas similar in structure and format to the KGS "Kansas Geomaps" along with pertinent electronic data files (word-processor, spreadsheet, or ARC/INFO files) and descriptions of their sources and of any other data used to prepare the items delivered. The atlas shall consists of paired pages that represent information in a map and/or graph form supplemented with explanatory text and tables. Map and display coverages will use the legal sections, townships, and other administrative boundaries as a basis for presentations. When appropriate, data will be referenced and/or aggregated by PLSS section. The Atlas shall be developed with the review of the KWO and the Coordinating Council to ensure that it targets the Legislative mandates listed in Section II A and B. The KWO agrees to provide the necessary data and information (identified below) by November 15, 1999, and to ensure timely review of drafts in order for the KGS to meet deliverable due dates. The initial Atlas components shall include, but not be limited to, the following information:

Predevelopment Saturated Thickness
Most Current Saturated Thickness*
     Average of 1997-1999 Water Level Measurements
Percent Change in Saturated Thickness*
Absolute Change in Saturated Thickness*
    Predevelopment to Most Current* (Section/township Averages in Feet*)
Predevelopment Water Storage
     Product of saturated thickness and available specific yield estimates, in units of acre-feet
Change in Water Storage
     Predevelopment to most current*

Estimated Time to Depletion
    Linear extrapolation of depletion trends, with time interval and 'depleted' saturated thickness to be agreed upon by the KWO and the KGS.
Estimated Annual Groundwater Recharge
     Based on available estimates, with comparison of hydrologic estimates and those values adopted by water agencies.
Change in Total Water Usage
     Data to be provided by the KWO
Current Maximum Authorized Usage
Data to be provided by the KWO
Total Reduction in Authorized Quantity Needed to Meet Sustainable Yield
     Initial estimate based on equating authorized usage to estimated recharge at the township level of aggregation; implications, if any, of MDS and other factors will be discussed in text.
Regional Groundwater Quality Provinces
     Initial estimate will focus on salinity, with discussion of other issues and/or future classification in the text.
Groundwater Availability and Accessibility Provinces
    Initial deliverable will be a preliminary estimate based on volume, location and hydraulic conductivity, for further refinement.

Surface Water Resources (Quantity)
     Developed cooperatively with the KWO and other agencies
Surface Water Resources (Quality) combined with Surface
     Water Under TMDL Impairment
Historic Achievement of MDS
     Criteria to be supplied by the KWO

* Other time intervals for the estimation of saturated thickness and associated changes may be identified for presentation, subject to the availability of data and agreement between the KWO and the KGS on feasibility and resource allocation.