Four months of extensive meetings gathering stakeholder input, and Kansans have spoken.

“Kansans are tired of talking about water problems. They want to see action,” says Julie Lorenz, a consultant to the Kansas Water Authority. Lorenz provided an update on the progress of implementing the 2022 Kansas Water Plan at the Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas on Nov. 13.

“There are communities in all parts of the state that are at risk of running out of water for children who were born today before they turn 25,” Lorenz says. “Thanks to Gov. Kelly and to the bipartisan legislative support, we know that the water plan will be fully funded for the next two years as a state. We need to accomplish as much as possible in the next two years, not just to tackle these problems, but to also prove to Kansans that we’re able to make progress and that we’re a good investment for their tax dollars.”

One of the key points that arose from these stakeholder meetings was that Kansans support increasing funding from the current $60 million appropriated per year to tackle water concerns to $140 million, Lorenz says. And the general consensus was that the investment may need to be greater than that.

“However, they also said they were worried about making that amount of increase all at once,” she says. “They said they need to see a ramp up of funding over a few years to give agencies and local entities and communities time to build up their capacity to make sure that those dollars are invested wisely.” Overall, the feedback was: Be bold in setting a vision for what we want to achieve in the state and practical in the implementation.

Related:KDA warns poultry farmers of HPAI risk

To that end, the recommendation is to get Kansas to a 10-year rolling program for water, much like the state approached transportation.

“We’re recommending a multigenerational promise to ensure all Kansans have access to 50 years or more water supply,” Lorenz says. That’s going to require not only technical changes to conserve water, but also social changes to put water conservation at the forefront.

The Kansas Water Plan falls under the purview of three different agencies in the state, all of which are committed to working together.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Deputy Director Leo Henning says the big takeaway for his office is that Kansans are concerned about nitrates in their groundwater and cleaning up contaminated sites, as well as surface water quality. But complicating this is that there are a large number of water systems serving small communities that need additional help to make changes.

Related:USDA appoints four new USCP board members

The Kansas Rural Water Association has identified that 91% of the community water systems in the state serve populations of 500 or fewer people. And 60% of public water supplies use groundwater as their source. Many of these communities need to upgrade their infrastructure, Henning says.

“A lot of these lines have been in the ground for 100 years, and it’s time that they are replaced,” Henning says. That is a very expensive bill that these smaller communities cannot afford without grants or loans, and KDHE is committed to helping find those funding sources, he adds. It’s not just that some pipes are lead and need to be replaced for health, but older pipes have been reported to lose about 50% of the water that’s running through them before it ever reaches the tap, Henning adds.

Earl Lewis, chief water engineer for the Kansas Department of Agriculture, says his office is increasing funding for technical assistance for irrigation technology by working with the groundwater management districts, using a $25 million grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The office also is focused on older watershed dams that need repair and rehabilitation.

Connie Owen, director of the Kansas Water Office, said last year’s Kansas House Bill 2302 created two new grant programs for the Water Office to administer to provide technical assistance to municipalities and special districts of 2,000 or fewer residents. Those smaller communities don’t have an engineer on staff, for example, Owen says.

Related:Get your calves sale barn ready

These no cost-share grants can fund that engineering planning and more that larger communities have on staff. There was $17 million in the grant pool, Owen says, and applications exceeding $360 million over the two grants available. That’s just one signal of the demand in Kansas for assistance to tackle water issues, Owen says.

The greatest question of all, which will be at the forefront of the Kansas Water Authority’s work, Lorenz says, is how does Kansas secure a long-term vision and a long-term future for its water resources while still being profitable in the immediate term? Kansans, she adds, expect transparency, and they want to see results on an ongoing basis to earn those tax dollars. That will be the goal going forward.