By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays Mayor Mason Ruder called it "some really good news."
The cities of Hays and Russell were notified Tuesday by the Kansas Water Transfer Panel that it has set a date early next month to hear oral argument in the application to transfer water from their Edwards County R9 Ranch to the cities.
"We're really appreciative of them finally setting the hearing," Ruder said at Thursday's Hays City Commission meeting. "A long time coming. This is the last rung in this long ladder we've been climbing. We're weeks away now from actually getting to that next step."
The final regulatory approval the cities need is approval from the Water Transfer Panel to move the water from their property in Edwards County to Hays and Russell.
That's a fairly lengthy process.
"We went through a hearing in 2023. In 2024, the administrative law judge that oversaw the hearing issued his ruling approving Hays' and Russell's water transfer," Toby Dougherty, Hays city manager, said Friday morning on the KAYS Morning Show.
By state statute, there's one last step required and that is the transfer panel must hold one final hearing before they formally approve the actual transfer.
The three-member transfer panel is comprised of the head of the Kansas Water Office, the chief engineer of the Division of Water Resources and the secretary of the division of environment of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
"Statute required them to have it by May 2024. Much to our chagrin, they'd chosen to put that off," Dougherty said. "We'd filed a couple motions to get them to hold the hearing. We filed a motion again about six weeks ago."
The administrative hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 3 at the Kansas Corporation Commission in Topeka.
Dougherty hopes to get approval shortly.
"There's a voluminous record—hundreds of thousands of pages, and a two-week hearing, and an 85-page ruling from a judge—as part of a record that they have at their disposal. This is not a hearing where we're putting on evidence."
The opponents, Water PACK and Edwards County, will also present their arguments.