For more than 20 years Basin Advisory Committees (BAC) have been a vital voice for water resource issues in Kansas.

BACs are citizen advisory groups who provide insight, track issues and alert the Kansas Water Office (KWO) and Kansas Water Authority (KWA) when areas of concern arise in any of the 12 river basins located in Kansas.

The 2013 BAC membership drive has begun and applications for committee membership are being taken for the next 60 days.  Across the state, BACs have membership categories for new four-year terms.

All BACs have seven “core” categories: agriculture, conservation/environment, fish and wildlife, industry/commerce, municipal public water suppliers, recreation and one slot for an at-large public member.  Each BAC fills the balance of their membership roster with membership categories that represent the diversity of water uses and user groups in their basin.

The Smoky Hill-Saline River BAC includes Wallace, Logan, Gove, Trego, Ellis, Russell, Ellsworth, Lincoln and Saline counties.

Applications and more information are available online www.kwo.org or by calling the Kansas Water Office:  1-888-526-9283.