from Michael Pagels via http://www.littleapplepost.com
11:25 a.m. update Kansas Governor Sam Brownback spoke to a packed room in Manhattan, Kansas Thursday morning, October 24, at The Hilton Garden Inn Conference Center at around 9:30 a.m. The Governor took the stage in order to address the future of Kansas water, specifically the Ogallala Aquifer and the federal reservoirs.
The conference was sponsored by K-State Research and Extension, Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment, the Kansas Water Office and the Kansas Water Resources Institute. Speakers included Charles Fishman, Pat Mulroy, and James Stack.
Over 550 people were present at the conference, the max capacity for the event center. Brownback took the stage and outlined the problems that Kansas is currently facing with it’s underground water supply. According to the Governor, the Ogallala Aquifer currently had a $5 billion value, and was responsible for $1.75 billion in corn production, and $384 billion in beef.
“We have been reminded of the importance of water with another year of extreme drought for our state, which is now beginning to ease in eastern Kansas, but continues to persist in the west,” said Governor Sam Brownback. “Water and the Kansas economy are directly linked. Water is a finite resource and without further planning and action we will no longer be able to meet our state’s current needs, let alone growth.”
The Ogallala Aquifer also has a large impact with the cost of power, yet according to a recent K-State study at least 30% of the total aquifer. Brownback explained that this would be the ‘top 30%’ of the aquifer, or the easiest to use, but in many places over use of the aquifer has depleted areas to critical levels. According to the K-State study, the aquifer will be completed in 150-200 years.
Brownback insisted that now is the time to address these issues, and put out a a ‘call to action’ for the state of Kansas to act to save our underground water. Projections show that in the next 50 years, 70% of the Ogallala Aquifer will be depleted, with 40% of the area now irrigated with underground water unable to support a 400 gallon per minute irrigation well. The federal reservoirs will be 40% filled with sediment, and five of the seven basins which reservoirs support municipal and industrial water won’t be able to meed demands during a drought.
Browback’s vision for the future held to main points; to conserve and extend the high plains aquifer, and to secure, protect, and restore our reservoir storage. He explained the importance of a 20 year goals, with 5 year actions, with local leadership and involvement by Kansas Water Authority and Kansas Economics Advisers Council.
(AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and other officials are taking part in a two-day summit in Manhattan on the state’s long-term water needs.
Brownback was scheduled to speak Thursday morning at the start of the Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas. His office said he would deliver a “50-year vision” for Kansas water and issue an executive order.
Organizers were expecting several hundred state and local officials to attend. Brownback’s office said the conference would deal with water needs, plans for rebounding from future droughts and the growing amounts of sediment in Kansas reservoirs.
The conference is sponsored by the state’s Water Office and the Kansas Water Resources Institute at Kansas State University.