HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) - Supporters of a plan to divert Missouri River water from northeast Kansas to the west of the state say they aren't giving up on finding a way to move water to parched regions, even though state officials have rejected the proposal.
Tracy Streeter, executive director of the Kansas Water Office, told The Hutchinson News (http://bit.ly/1H2BTnX) this week that state officials don't plan to pursue a proposal to build an aqueduct and a concrete-lined canal from Doniphan County to Utica in western Kansas. A study released earlier this year estimated the plan would cost $18 billion to build and another $1 billion a year to operate.
"This thing we studied is unlikely to happen," Streeter said. "The components and the costs - $450 an acre-foot - are not feasible."
The plan faced fierce opposition in northeast Kansas and from Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon who called it a "hare-brained idea."
Doniphan County farmers also resisted the plan that they said would require the construction of a 13,000-surface acre reservoir on prime farmland near White Cloud, Streeter said.
The proposal would have needed federal and state approval, along with discussions of American Indian tribal rights and endangered species issues, she said.
"We have no plans to take the study to another level - or look at things," Streeter said. "What we have looked at doing is starting a conversation with stakeholders in the Missouri River basin."
However, supporters in southwest Kansas say the effort to transfer water to the arid western region of the state is not over.
Southwest Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 3, with donations from grain cooperatives, has commissioned a $20,000 study of the economic impact to the state if the aqueduct is not built.
District manager Mark Rude said the study should be complete in a few weeks and he hopes to present the findings to the Kansas Legislature during the current session.
"As far as I am concerned, if people in a certain part of the state think it has gone away - and that gives them comfort - then fine," said Rude. "But water transportation is the key for water-short areas in the future. If there is an overabundance in one place and a need in another, the natural process is to develop a transportation system."