| 5/21/2008 1:58:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Kickapoos Oppose Watershed District Plan
Ike Larson
Publisher/Editor
The Kickapoo Tribe opposes a plan by a local watershed district to store water at 48 dams and reservoirs in the drainage basin of the Delaware River.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the Tribe said it has filed an objection letter with the Kansas Department of Water Resources opposing a permit sought by Nemaha-Brown Watershed Joint District No. 7.
The Tribe says the 48 dams and reservoirs adversely affect its water supply and has requested they be immediately removed. The Tribe contends the structures were built without water permits and without "consideration of the impacts" they have on the watershed and the Tribe.
The Tribe says it possesses the senior rights to the water in the watershed under Federal Law. In 2006, the Tribe sued the watershed district and other government agencies in Federal Court over land for the proposed Plum Creek Reservoir.
"Although we would want to believe otherwise, this latest saga in our fight for our water rights seems to reflect a long-term strategy by some persons in either in the state government or at the local watershed district to deprive the Tribe of its right to protect its senior federal water rights by never requiring the watershed district to secure permits to store water under Kansas law," said Tribal Chairman Steve Cadue.
"Given what has happened to our water in the Delaware River, it is hard for us to believe that this was merely an oversight by the state and watershed district," Cadue said. "The Kickapoo people are human beings ... we have every right to the protection of our water by the state and local governments here in Kansas. We should not be left at the mercy of regular droughts here in Northeast Kansas when other people are free to abscond with our water."
Glenn Hennigan of Sabetha, who is listed by the Nemaha County Clerk's office as the watershed district's contact person, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The watershed district has applied for a permit to "appropriate water for beneficial use," according to a legal noticed published in the May 6 edition of the Hiawatha World. The notice states the districts "proposes to appropriate such unappropriated surface water as may be available in the drainage basin of the Delaware River, to be diverted and stored by means of 48 existing watershed dams and reservoirs with a total surface area of 324.35 acres ..."
The dams and reservoirs are located in Atchison, Brown, Nemaha and Jackson counties. The total amount of water requested is nearly 662 acre-feet per year for sediment control use - the equivalent ofthree times the yearly evaporation from the reservoirs' surface area, the notice says.
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Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, May 23, 2008
Article comment by:
Herbert R. Graves Jr.
I represent the State Association of Kansas Watersheds (SAKW)as their Executive Director.
Every watershed district in Kansas is required by state statutes to obtain a water appropriation permit.
Nemaha Brown watershed district therefore is only doing what there are required to do.
SAKW understands the value of water in the Delaware basin and particularly to the Kickapoo Tribe. What must be understood is that water stored behind watershed dams does not prevent stream water from reaching the Delaware River. All watershed structures constructed in Nemaha and Brown County were built as 100% flow through structures. This means that after the initial fill-up of the sediment pool all water coming into the structure is released downstream. In Northeast Kansas this initial fill occurs generally within the first year after construction. Some evaporation of the stored water does occur and this is how the amount of water is determined to be under the water appropriation permit.
If the flow in the Delaware River is depleted as if has been in the last few years, it is because of draught conditions throughout the watershed. If one would look at the streams above the watershed dams during draught times, they would notice that little if any water was flowing. Again if water flows into the dams, it is released.
One other aspect of the stored water behind watershed dams is that it provides a tremendous water quality benefit to the downstream flows. Agriculture chemicals are trapped with the sediment coming from farmland and reduces the amount of treatment needed at the Kickapoo water treatment plant.
The flood reduction benefits from the watershed dams in Kansas are providing an estimated $50 million dollars in average annual benefits to Kansas. Part of this benefit is realized by the landowners of Nemaha and Brown Co. to include the Kickapoo Indian Reservation.
I appreciate the opportunity to address the watershed district issues of Nemaha and Brown County.
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