ST. JOHN — When discussing water rights in Kansas, it’s important to take care of the weeds. But it is also important not to stray too far afield.
In June, a federally-released 468-page draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) regarding the Rattlesnake Creek Watershed Plan drew the attention, and then concern, from the county governments and their constituents affected by water impairment mitigation efforts currently being addressed by Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
Stafford and Pawnee County Commissioners had for months sought discussion with parties involved, and Thursday afternoon in St. John, came to the table with QNWR and other water management officials in a 2-1/2 hour joint meeting at the Stafford County Courthouse Annex.
The meeting was organized and attended by representatives of the Kansas Natural Resource Coalition. Also in attendance were Barton County Commissioners Tricia Schlessiger and Duane Reif; QNWR manager Kate Brenner; Kansas Department of Agriculture Chief Engineer Earl Lewis and Groundwater District No. 5 Manager Orrin Feril.
Agenda items discussed included an overview of water resources impacting agriculture; water resource management at the QNWR; discussion of QNWR’s 2013 augmentation plan and the DEIS; and the federally-filed impairment claim affecting the 1957 senior water right to 14,632 acre-feet of annual water supply to the refuge.
Commissioners also addressed several questions to the water panel on QNWR’s ability to meet requirements of its 21,000-acre wetland as well as maintenance efforts regarding its water control canal system. Commissioners questioned that QNWR was meeting its 95% threshold requirement for its Comprehensive Conservation Plan, which includes vegetation management and a grazing program for local cattle producers.
Discussion grew strained, however, when addressing DEIS language invoking eminent domain to seize and retire private property as a water right requirement, as well as the ability of the QNWR’s ability to effectively manage vegetation and tree removal affecting streamflow due to a 70% reduction in staffing since the first of the year.
Mike Oldham left the position of manager at QNWR in September, 2024. Brenner was hired as manager in December. “There was no refuge manager from essentially May until I arrived in December, so we were behind in meeting our three-year cooperative agreement,” Brenner said. “When I arrived in December, we were already behind. We had it all planned out and were ready to go, then we had the administration change and our staffing dropped immensely. We had retirements, we had a lot of people leave, the grazing manager transferred to a different station. We had a 70% reduction in staff.”
Margaret Byfield, executive director of American Stewards of Liberty, noted during DEIS discussion that the document should have considered all reasonable alternatives, instead of picking solutions such as reducing and retiring agriculture water rights. While agencies were willing to cooperate, they weren’t participating effectively in the coordination process that recognizes the web of authorities between the three levels of government. “The cooperative agency door has been offered to counties and not coordination,” she said. “You can say you extended cooperative agency, which is fine, but the problem with county governments being involved in the cooperative agency process is that they have to follow state open meeting laws. They can’t go to your meetings and have a quorum there. They can’t go and have a discussion unless there’s a pubic notice and an agenda and taking minutes.
“This should have been addressed very early on, but I can’t blame you for that because a lot of agencies don’t understand the function of coordination."
“This does not seem like a coordination session,” interjected Lewis. “This seems more like a Congressional oversight hearing. How I think about coordination is the work that we’ve put together over the past two years to say how do we move this forward. I probably should stop talking, because I don’t know why we’re here and I don’t have an attorney here.”
“That’s kind of what Margaret just alluded to,” noted Pawnee County Commissioner Rein, who had been elected chairman for the Thursday meeting. “If you’re dealing with county governments, county commissioners can’t do things without a record. One commissioner can; one commissioner can sit in on a meeting, but he has no weight or authority. The only way a county commission has weight or authority is in an open meeting with a record.
“But we do want to get a lot of questions answered in a public forum that we get from our constituents. That’s where all this comes from. We are creating a record, I’m going to be very blunt about that. This is a joint county commission meeting; there will be someone taking notes.”
At the conclusion of the meeting, Rein said that the round-table was “a good first step. That’s what we’re trying to do. We are trying to ensure that what we get to is the best-fix scenario, and lasting.”
