On July 22nd, Chief Engineer David Barfield approved a significant expansion to the existing Water Conservation Area (WCA) for the Garden City Company (GCC 2017 WCA, originally 7,170 acres). This expansion will add an additional 15,580 acres to the new WCA. The two Garden City Company WCAs are the largest in the state with roughly 22,749 total acres combined and is planned to save approximately 2,900 acre-feet per year or a total of 14,720 acre-feet of water over the 5-year WCA terms of both WCAs.
A Water Conservation Area (WCA) is a simple, streamlined and flexible tool that allows any water right owner or group of owners the opportunity to develop a management plan to reduce withdrawals in an effort to extend the usable life of the Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer. WCA’s across the state are enrolled in about 80,827 acres and are saving 16,043 acre-feet (AF) per calendar year. Upon approval of The Garden City Company WCA, Finney/Kearny Counties are enrolled in about 47,000 acres and saving 10,868 acre-feet per calendar year.
For more information about WCA’s and how they can help you, please visit https://agriculture.ks.gov/divisions-programs/dwr/managing-kansas-water-resources/wca.