Wichita ASR Prehearing Order Issued

On May 1, 2019 Hearing Officer Connie Owen issued an order directing that oral arguments on the eight remaining motions by the parties will be heard May 28, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. at the Harvey County Courthouse in Newton. Details on the who the parties are and the motions that will be argued are laid out in the order.

The evidentiary hearing on the merits of Wichita’s proposed changes to its Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) project issues has not yet been set pending securing the location, but it appears likely that the dates will be in late September 2019.

KDA-DWR continues to update our Wichita ASR page with information regarding the City of Wichita’s proposal, background information, and the information related to the current hearing process.…

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Hays Russell R9 Ranch change applications contingently approved

On March 27, 2019, the chief engineer contingently approved the change applications submitted by the cities of Hays and Russell to convert the irrigation rights of the R9 Ranch in Edwards County to municipal use for the cities. The documents approving the water right changes include a 53-page master order as well as 32 individual change approvals and other attachments and exhibits.  The master order includes the Chief Engineer’s summary and review of the pertinent public input received regarding the change application decision.

Documents posted on KDA-DWR web site related to this action (https://www.agriculture.ks.gov/HaysR9) include the chief engineer’s transmittal letter, the final Master Order contingently approving the cities’ change applications, a one-page summary of the matter, and more. Unless the order is challenged, the next step will be initiation of the water transfer proceeding.

Background

The City of Hays purchased the approximately 7,000-acre R9 Ranch and its thirty water rights in southwestern Edwards County in 1995 with the intention of someday using the water as part of the Cities of Hays and Russell’s water supply.

During June 2015, the Cities of Hays and Russell (Cities) submitted applications to KDA-DWR to change the use made of water from irrigation to municipal use for the R9 Ranch water rights. As these proposed changes envision moving greater than 2,000 acre-feet more than 35 miles, during January 2016, the Cities submitted an application to transfer water from Edwards County to the Cities pursuant to the Water Transfer Act (K.S.A. 82a-1501, et seq.). The water transfer proceeding is not initiated until the transfer application is complete, which includes the contingent approval of change applications.

During May 2018, a draft proposed master order and exhibits were transmitted to GMD5 for its review and posted on this website, along with the change applications and amendments. A public information meeting was held on June 21, 2018 to discuss the applications. GMD5 provided a recommendation on August 28, which was supplemented on September 14; WaterPACK provided additional responses on August 21 and 13; and the cities provided responses on September 14 and 18.

Approval provisions

The irrigation rights of the R9 Ranch include 32 water rights covering 56 points of diversion with a total authorized quantity of 7647 acre-feet/year for irrigation. Because only the consumptive use portion of the water rights can be changed from irrigation use to municipal use, the total authorized quantity is being contingently reduced to a maximum of 6,756.8 acre-feet/year.  In addition, the Chief Engineer has imposed a 10-year rolling aggregate limitation of 48,000 acre-feet (an average of 4,800 acre-feet/year), based on the reasonable long-term yield of the R9 Ranch water rights.  The master order includes prescribed reporting and monitoring requirements and also includes a delayed effective date, among other conditions. 

As a result of the public process, the following key revisions to the initial proposed approval documents were made by the Chief Engineer and incorporated into the issued Master Order: provisions that would have allowed the 10-year rolling aggregate limitation potentially to be dropped in the future were removed; a provision was added that requires a public hearing prior to any increase of the 10-yearrolling aggregate limitation; a water quality component was added to the Cities’ monitoring plan; and a minor error in the cities’ groundwater modeling was identified and corrected.

Next step

The next step is to initiate the water transfer proceedings under the Water Transfer Act. The water transfer panel will consist of the Chief Engineer, the Director of the Kansas Water Office, and the Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment or the Director of the Division of Environment. A hearing officer will be appointed who will hear testimony. At issue at the hearing will be whether it is in the state’s overall best interest to allow the Cities’ requested transfer of the water. The process of the water transfer proceedings is anticipated to take 1-  2 years.

Tags: HaysR9, changes, water transfer, StaffordFO, GMD5, StocktonFO …

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Wichita ASR matter delegated, March 26 hearing postponed

On March 19, 2019 Chief Engineer Barfield delegated to Constance (Connie) Owens the authority to serve as the presiding officer in the matter of considering Wichita’s proposed changes to its Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) project, postponing the formal phase of the public hearing previously scheduled for March 26, 2019. Hearing Officer Owen will conduct a hearing among the formal parties and provide written recommendations to the Chief Engineer based on the record after such hearings are complete. 

A new date for the formal phase of the hearing will be announced in the near future.

KDA-DWR web site related to Wichita’s proposed changes to its ASR has been updated with the parties’ filings (expert reports, motions), as well as the latest orders from the Chief Engineer. https://www.agriculture.ks.gov/WichitaASR

Tags: ASR, GMD2, StaffordFO, Wichita, Equus Beds …

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Formal hearing for Wichita ASR proposals set for March 26

The formal phase of the public hearing on proposed modifications to the permitting of Wichita’s existing Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) project will be held on March 26, 2019, continuing to March 27 if needed. The public hearing will be held at ICM, Inc. 125 N. 1st Street, Suites 2 and 3, Colwich, KS.

While this phase is principally for the former parties, it is open to the public and verbal comments from the public will be accepted at 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m on March 26.

Wichita’s proposal, a brief summary, public comments received to date including transcript of the December 11 meeting, and more available on the KDA’s web site at https://www.agriculture.ks.gov/WichitaASR

Tags: ASR, GMD2, StaffordFO, Wichita, Equus Beds …

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Wichita ASR Dec 11 hearing scope narrowed to public comments; second hearing to follow

Below is a summary of additional motions and subsequent decisions related to the hearing(s) in connection with the City of Wichita’s requested changes to its Aquifer Storage and Recovery permits.

  • On Oct. 26, an order was issued admitting additional parties to the formal proceeding.
  • On Nov. 3, the new parties filed a motion to extend preparation timelines and requesting the hearing be postponed to allow more time to prepare. GMD 2 filed a motion to support; the City opposed.
  • On Nov. 12, Chief Engineer Barfield issued an order on these motions which: 1) left the Public Hearing scheduled for Dec. 11, 2018 in Wichita in place but limiting the hearing to individual public comments, 2) determined there would be a second public hearing for the purpose of conducting the formal phase of the hearing, and 3) extended the deadline for the close of discovery to Dec. 21, 2018.
  • Following a call on Nov. 16, an order was issued tentatively setting Feb. 13 for the second, formal phase hearing and established other preparation deadlines.

See our web site for copies of the motions, orders and related matters:  http://www.agriculture.ks.gov/WichitaASR

Tags: WichitaASR, StaffordFO, GMD2…

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Wichita Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) hearing rescheduled to Dec 11, scope of hearing narrowed

On September 4, GMD 2 filed a motion requesting additional time to prepare for the hearing. This precipitated a series of additional filings by the parties and additional pre-hearing conferences calls.  On Sept. 20, the City of Wichita requested their new applications be withdrawn.

After discussion at the September 26 pre-hearing conference, it was agreed the hearing would be postponed to December 11 and the scope of the hearing would be narrowed, dropping the consideration of the City’s withdrawn new applications.

Thus, the public hearing in the matter of Wichita’s proposed changes to Phase II of its ASR project will be held on December 11, 2018, starting at 9:00 a.m. at American Ag Credit, located at 4105 North Ridge Road, Wichita, Kansas, 67205, to be continued on December 12 if needed.

More details on these matters are available at: http://www.agriculture.ks.gov/WichitaASR

Tags: WichitaASR, GMD2, StaffordFO…

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