Tag Archives: Kansas water

Fighting for Water

Posted on by Brad Guhr

(Interested in Kansas water issues? Learn about our Kansas Water Symposium on Saturday, March 7 at Dyck Arboretum of the Plains!)

 

“Whisky’s for drinking and water’s for fighting.” ~Mark Twain is often given credit for this quote

Kansans for decades have utilized a seemingly endless supply of water to drink, to bathe, wash clothes, manage sewage, generate power, irrigate lawns, and grow crops. We give it little thought, we turn on the tap and it is there – clean, plentiful and inexpensive. Most families pay much more per month for their smart phones than for water.

The law of supply and demand is certainly in effect here to keep our water cheap. We have developed a state infrastructure making the availability of water plentiful and we access it in two main ways. Kansas reservoirs capture an average precipitation of 30-40 inches for use across much of Eastern Kansas, and one of the world’s largest underground water tables, the High Plains or Ogallala Aquifer, supplies water for most of Western Kansas. In South Central Kansas, we benefit from both supplies.

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Experts are telling us though (and common sense should too) that this unbridled use cannot last. Our Kansas population continues to grow along with our collective thirst for water, and our water supply is not increasing to keep pace. The Ogallala aquifer as a whole is declining in its level, and stream sedimentation is diminishing the capacity of reservoirs. A recent 2013 presentation by Tracy Streeter, Kansas Water Office Director, shows that, depending on the region of Kansas that one examines, the trend lines of decreasing supply and increasing demand are set to cross each other in coming decades and in some locations coming years.

The sobering unknown factor in this discussion of water supply and demand is weather. Over the last 50 years or so, we have been lucky to have above average rainfall and below average temperatures. The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) helps us track this information and is one of the most widely-used indices to measure drought in North America. The PDSI measures the intensity and duration of long-term drought using precipitation and temperature data to determine how much soil moisture is available compared to average conditions. In a 2012 presentation by Tony Layzell of the Kansas Geological Survey, he shares the following graph of PDSI data in South Central Kansas:

You can see that the two most recent significant drought events of 10-15 years in duration last happened in the Dust Bowl and the 1950s. For those of us that didn’t experience either of these drought events, the mini-drought of 2011 and 2012 gave us a little taste of relentless heat and drought, and it was distasteful enough. Here is the pending reality and problem – the law of averages is catching up with us and we are due for another drought event. Whether a little five-year event or a whopping multi-decade drought, it is coming.

We shouldn’t ignore this reality, hope that it never happens, and stick our heads in the proverbial sand in search of more prehistoric water that won’t be there or new reservoir storage, which is extremely expensive to create. Rather, we can proactively begin to appreciate how precious our water resources are and begin to use them more wisely. To survive, we will simply be forced to do so.

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Center-pivot irrigation, a common sight in Southwestern Kansas (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crops_Kansas_AST_20010624.jpg)

Solutions are available. Agricultural irrigation uses 85% of our state’s water and efficiency improvements are being made there already, but a drought will certainly force us to shift away from corn towards more traditional dry-land crops. Fossil fuel power generation is water-intensive and may diminish during a drought, but renewable alternatives are also available to pick up the slack. How we landscape our yards, parks, golf courses, etc. could significantly curtail municipal water use by shifting away from thirsty cool season grasses and utilizing more native, warm-season vegetation. We could be recycling our cleaned sewage water into drinking water; The City of Wichita Falls, Texas has been forced to do so because of a 5-year drought and cut their water supply demands over that period in more than half. The fact that North Americans wash clothes, flush toilets, and irrigate lawns, gardens, and crops with drinking water is laughable to much of the world’s population (including some other developed nations too) where access to clean drinking water is not a laughing matter. Thankfully, Kansas is in the midst of developing A LONG-TERM VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF WATER SUPPLY IN KANSAS and is considering all of these conservation solutions in addition to looking at increasing supply.

There are so many more issues to consider when discussing this complex topic of water. We invite you to the Dyck Arboretum’s Kansas Water Symposium on Saturday, March 7 and explore the above issues with eight experts speaking on a variety of water topics.

A Love for Water: Reflections on Water Supply

Posted on by Brad Guhr

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In spite of winter’s recent blast, I am feeling hydrophilic. It is true that I have a “strong affinity for water” as the definition goes. In a vocation working with water-dependent plants where Latin names are commonly used, the word “hydrophillic” (Latin hydrophilus, from Greek hydr- + -philos -philous) should be common vernacular.

It may seem silly to state this affection given that everyone knows human survival requires regular access to potable water. But it feels fitting to make this proclamation after experiencing a 2014 Kansas growing season of near average precipitation when rain fell regularly and nearly always when it seemed to be most needed. Our home lawn didn’t require much irrigation to keep from going dormant, our vegetable garden was especially bountiful, and the Central Kansas prairie was as lush and tall and colorful and productive with ripe seed as I have seen it in the last decade. With fresh memories of the scorching summers of 2011 and 2012, when heat and drought tested every Kansan’s resolve to maintain residency, I can definitely say that I…love…water.

 

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I just finished attending the first day of the Governor’s Conference on the Future of Water in Kansas, where newly re-elected Governor Sam Brownback committed that a big part of his second term will be dedicated to development and implementation of A Long-Term Vision for the Future of Water Supply in Kansas. Kansans are fortunate to have access to plentiful groundwater in the western part of the state and surface water in the east. At the moment, we are fortunate to regularly turn on the tap for a clean, seemingly limitless supply of water – a luxury that costs less than our phone bills, cable bills, and electricity bills, but is far more essential.

The introductory statement in the Governor’s document issues a warning: “The writing is on the wall and if we don’t act today, our future is bleak. The Ogallala Aquifer is declining faster than it is recharging. Reservoirs, which are critical water storage structures for much of our state, are filling with sediment. At this rate, with no changes in the next 50 years, the Ogallala will be 70 percent depleted and our reservoirs will be 40 percent filled with sediment.” Most of us haven’t experienced a Dust Bowl in our lifetime or don’t remember the one we did. Hopefully, we won’t experience one in our lifetime, but odds are increasing that we will.

 

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Wise Use of Kansas Water will be the topic of our Dyck Arboretum 2015 Spring Education Symposium. This symposium will explore the history of drought cycles on the Plains, the current status of our Kansas water supply, what steps are being taken to protect it, and offer ways we can better conserve it.

Stay tuned for more information. In the meantime, love water.

(Photos courtesy of Gerry Epp)