Gov. Laura Kelly says it’s up to lawmakers now to ensure western Kansas doesn’t dry up and become deserted
By ALLISON KITE
Kansas Reflector
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly proposed creating a state natural resources office and spending another $30 million each year to address the state’s water crisis in her State of the State Address Wednesday night.
In her speech, Kelly, a Democrat, looked back over the first 25 years of the 21st century and said she sees “so many good things on the horizon” in the next 75 years. But she called the state’s dwindling water supply “seriously concerning.”
“Without that water, the agricultural industry that fuels our economy and sustains our rural way of life cannot survive,” Kelly said.
The Ogallala Aquifer, which provides water to the western third of the state, has been dwindling for decades. But despite warnings over the years that the Ogallala, the largest underground store of freshwater in the nation, was a finite resource, the state allowed crop irrigation to drain parts of the aquifer to crisis levels.
“Forget making it 75 years down the road,” she said. “Some parts of western Kansas don’t have the groundwater to last another 75 years.”
For that reason, Kelly said, she and other lawmakers have been working to “change decades of inaction on our water supply.” Officials have spread out across the state to listen to farmers, ranchers and other stakeholders.
“As a result, we’ve set a goal: from now on, each generation will work to protect our water supply for the next two generations that follow,” she said, calling it “the multigenerational promise.”
Kelly’s budget proposal, expected to be released Thursday, will include another $30 million each year for water priorities. That’s on top of an additional $35 million the Kansas Legislature authorized for water priorities in 2023.
She did not specify how the additional resources might be spent. The state has been pushing local groundwater agencies to come up with plans to address the aquifer decline.
To address the state’s water crisis, Kelly proposed creating a singular office to govern water issues and streamline conservation efforts. Right now, she said, there are 14 agencies governing water in Kansas, making it “difficult, if not impossible, to align efforts around policy planning and investment.”
Kansas lawmakers considered reorganizing state agencies that address water in 2022, but it never made it out of the Kansas House Water Committee.
Kelly also proposed creating a long-term strategy “to ensure that Kansans have the water supply they need to exist … for generations to come.”
More than 35 years ago, Kelly said, the Kansas Legislature created the first comprehensive transportation plan to effectively build and manage roads and other infrastructure. It needs something similar, she said, to ensure Kansans “have the water needed to farm their land, preserve their communities and their way of life.”
Kelly said the decisions lawmakers make touch “every aspect of the lives of the people we work for.” She said the Kansas the next generations will inherit “is up to us right now.”
“Is our agricultural economy booming because we preserved our water … or is rural Kansas dried up and deserted?” Kelly said. “That’s up to us.”