By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The pursuit of a long-term water supply for Hays from the R9 Ranch in Edwards County is about to clear a major hurdle.

Mayor James Meier talked at the end of Thursday night’s city commission work session about a communication from the governor’s office received late Sunday night.

“As you already know, it looks like they are going to be finishing up the Master Change Order in May,” Meier said. “It’s pretty significant because with all the time lines thrown out there, I don’t think there’s ever been anything firm from DWR (Division of Water Resources) or from any other governmental entity as to when we can expect this order to be issued.”

“This was a ‘firm’ May. So, we’re looking at 8 to 10 weeks, maximum.”

Hays is seeking to reallocate, or change, the water use at the R9 Ranch south of Kinsley from agriculture to municipal and also seeks permission from the state to transfer the water from the Arkansas River basin to the Smoky Hill River basin, which would trigger the Water Transfer Act.

Meier said it was “great to have that commitment from the governor’s office” and thanked several people, including Hays native Gov. Jeff Colyer for “taking time out of his schedule to investigate this and talked to DWR and the Department of Agriculture to get things moving.”

Meier’s biggest “thank you” was for State Representative Eber Phelps (D-Hays).

Phelps is a former long-time Hays city commissioner who was serving on the commission when the ranch was purchased in 1994 by the city of Hays as a long-term water supply. The city of Russell owns an 18 percent share of the ranch.

“Phelps has done an outstanding job and none of it has been public,” Meier pointed out.

“He’s been working behind the scenes with multiple people, with the governor’s office, with the secretary of agriculture’s office, with DWR, and with fellow legislators trying to set up tours to get people down there and understand what we’re doing, educating everybody on the process and getting them excited about it.”

Meier asked city staff to compile a “fairly comprehensive” overview of the next steps in the process of the Water Transfer Act, which has never been triggered in Kansas.

The overview will be presented at the April 12 city commission meeting.

Commissioners want the information to be shared publicly during the televised meeting.

“We’ll go through the timeline of how the Change Order will now be issued but we still have to get through the Transfer Act and what that entails and who does what,” Meier said. “It’s extremely complicated.”

“I think the public will appreciate that,” Commissioner Sandy Jacob agreed. “I’ve been getting questions.”

Commissioner Shaun Musil is also getting questions about the status of the project. “I had somebody from Victoria actually email me yesterday wanting to know where we were at with this,” Musil told the commission.

Meier was glad to know about the inquiry. “We’ve always said this is a regional water source.”

City Manager Toby Dougherty told commissioners he periodically reaches out to Victoria, Ellis and Russell with a status update and would invite representatives to the April 12th meeting.

The change applications from agricultural use to municipal use were filed in June, 2015. The city began the regulatory process in February, 2014.

The R9 Ranch, 78 miles from Hays, is being converted to native grass as agricultural irrigation water wells are shut down and equipment removed.