By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
A petition for judicial review has been filed as the first part of the regulatory phase is wrapping up for transferring water from the R9 Ranch in Edwards County to Hays.
The ranch is owned by the cities of Hays and Russell to be used as long term water source, which may also be made available to Ellis, Victoria and La Crosse.
A final master order was issued March 27 by David Barfield, chief engineer at the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources (DWR), approving change applications by Hays and Russell to convert the irrigation rights of the R9 Ranch to municipal use for the cities.
There are two checks in that process.
Due to the quantity of water and the distance it will be transported for its new use, the project also requires approval under the state’s Water Transfer Act. Now that the changes have been approved, the water transfer proceeding will be initiated to determine whether it is in the state’s overall best interest to allow the transfer of the water.
“Entities could petition the secretary of agriculture for a review of the order. There was (such) a petition and the secretary declined declined to review the order, and stated the order was fine,” Hays City Manager Toby Dougherty told city commissioners Thursday night.
The last opportunity for an intervention by an outside party is to petition for a judicial review.
A group called WaterPACK, the Water Protection Association of Central Kansas, has filed a petition for judicial review with the court in Edwards County.
“They’re really our only opposition in this entire project,” noted Dougherty. “Essentially what the petition said is that (they) don’t agree with the chief engineer’s findings on the master order.
“They rehashed all the arguments they brought up as the master order was being drafted to which the chief engineer pointed out they weren’t relevant to the situation. There was no new information introduced.”
DWR is in the process of filing its response to WaterPACK. The Division of Water Resources, through their agriculture department attorney, is filing their answer to the petition on June 28.
“I believe, on that same day, it’s our attorney’s intention to file a motion to intervene on behalf of Hays. There will also be one filed on behalf of the city of Russell. Once those motions are filed, we are tied into the case,” Dougherty explained to the commissioners, “becoming a party to the case, as is WaterPACK and as is the Division of Water Resources.”
Dougherty does not know what the court proceedings schedule will be. “That will be up to the judge to determine what the procedure is to be going forward, or whether something might get dismissed.
“We do fully intend to be tied to this case,” he emphasized.
By state law, once the Final Master Order is issued, the Water Transfer Act is triggered, which has never happened in Kansas.
The act still requires approval within 18 months from a three-person panel consisting of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary or the KDHE Director of the Division of Environment, the head of the Kansas Water Office, and the chief engineer of the KDA/DWR. The state agriculture department oversees the Division of Water Resources.
Updated public information is available on the KDA–DWR website dedicated to the project — agriculture.ks.gov/HaysR9.