Division of Water Resources

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Water Appropriation and Changes in Water Use
Presented at the Bioenergy and Water in Kansas
workshop David Barfield, Chief Engineer
Division of Water Resources
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Limited Water in Kansas

• Kansas variability in hydrologic conditions
  across the state
• Average precipitation ranges from 16 inches in
  western Kansas to 40 inches in eastern Kansas
• Droughts can be persistent
• Western Kansas
• Primarily relies on the Ogallala-High Plains
  aquifer for its water supply
• Eastern Kansas
• Primarily relies on surface water supplies
• Central Kansas
• Relies on a mixture of surface and groundwater

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Kansas Water Appropriation Act

• All water dedicated to use of the people of
  Kansas
• Right to use water is based on
• First in time is first in right priority
  system
• Limits rights to reasonable needs
• Allows a limited resource to be allocated for
  beneficial use and to protect minimum desirable
  streamflows
• Protects investments, property rights and the
  resource

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Kansas Water Appropriation Act

• Chief Engineer is charged with administering the
  act
• Single priority system for ground and surface
  water
• A water right is not to the ownership of water,
  but it is a real property right to divert and use
  water for beneficial purposes with certain
  limitations.
• No type of use is given preference in
  appropriations, although conversion of water
  rights tends to move toward higher valued uses

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Water Management

• During periods of shortage, junior water rights
  may be curtailed to satisfy senior rights and
  minimum desirable stream flow
• Releases from storage may be protected
• Statutes provide additional comprehensive tools
  to deal with long-term water problems, e.g.
  Intensive Groundwater use Control Areas (IGUCAs)

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Water Management Trends

• Closing of many areas to new water rights
• New rights in other areas limited to safe yield
• Increased use of metering
• Increased water conservation
• Increasing use of changes in water rights to
  accommodate new and different uses in
  closed/restricted areas

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Overall Water Use
(from 2005 water use reports)
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Water For New Uses

• In areas closed to new appropriation of water,
  accommodated through purchase and conversion of
  existing water rights
• Changes must not increase consumptive use.

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What is Consumptive Use?

• The portion of water withdrawn that is
  evaporated, transpired, incorporated into
  products or crops, consumed by humans or
  livestock, or otherwise removed from the
  immediate water environment. (USGS definition)
• Water that does not return to the original source
  of supply.

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Consumptive Use

• The extent of consumptive use shall not be
  increased substantially after a vested right has
  been determined or the time allowed in which to
  perfect the water right has expired, including
  any authorized extension of time to perfect the
  water right. (K.A.R. 5-5-3)
• Approval of a change in the use made of water
  from irrigation to any other type of beneficial
  use shall not be approved if it will cause an
  increase in the net consumptive use from the
  local source of supply of water supply by the
  original irrigation use. (K.A.R. 5-5-9)

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Why Protect Consumptive Use?

• Most irrigation water rights are not exercised to
  the full extent of their terms, conditions and
  limitations, during every calendar year.
• Prevent direct impairment of other water rights,
  by limiting new uses to the average historical
  consumption.
• Prevent an increased net effect on the source of
  supply or depletion due to an increased
  proportion of consumption/use, if originally
  authorized quantity is allowed to be diverted
  during every calendar year.
• Net effect on the hydrologic system should be the
  same after the change in water use.

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CU Formula

• 50 Net Irrigation Requirement (corn)
• Lyon County 7.5 inches
• Ellis County 12.2 inches
• Finney County 14.5 inches
• Multiplied by the maximum number of acres legally
  irrigated during the perfection period

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Ethanol Plants

• Current Kansas ethanol production capacity is
  over 329 million gallons per year
• This is expected to continue to grow five plants
  now under construction

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Water Use Ethanol Plants

• Newer facilities can produce a gallon of ethanol
  using 3 to 4 gallons of water (as well as
  distillers grain and CO2).
• Distillers grain is used for feed in cattle
  industry
• Sources of water for ethanol plants
• municipal systems
• conversion of existing water rights from other
  uses
• new applications
• At 4 gallons water consumed per gallon of ethanol
  produced, current ethanol production could
  require approx 4000 af/y

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Ethanol Water Use Comparisons

• With current technology, a 50 million gallon
  ethanol plant might use about 614 acre-feet of
  water a year
• This is comparable to the water needed to grow 1
  to 2 sections of corn or annual water use by a
  town of about 4,000 people.

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Questions
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Water Supplies
Major surface water resources
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Water Supplies
Major groundwater resources
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Some power plants do not have a water right, and
instead are served by municipal water systems.
In addition, some power plants are served through
water marketing contracts (reservoir releases)
that are not part of the water rights held by the
power plants.
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Water Use Thermoelectric Power Plants
Thermoelectric power includes coal, natural gas,
oil, and biomass combustion plants as well as
nuclear facilities
Kansas thermoelectric power plants use about
2,530,000 acre-feet/year for cooling. A small
fraction of this (about 67,000 acre-feet/ year,
or 3 of the total water pumped) is consumed
(evaporated) the rest is returned to the source.
KS
(USGS, 2000)
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Outlook for water for energy

• Improved water use efficiency
• Higher energy efficiency
• Increased demands
• Increased reliance on
• Water storage (surface reservoirs and artificial
  recharge to aquifers)
• Water right conversions from other uses
• Alternative supplies (e.g., desalination of
  brackish water)
• Reuse (closed-loop systems)
• Renewable energy production (e.g., wind, solar)
  could decrease water consumption

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Topics

• Kansas water law overview
• Water supplies
• Water use, overall and for energy production
• Outlook for the future

Note This presentation focuses on electrical
power generation and ethanol production. It does
not address other activities that might be
considered energy production such as mining
fossil fuels, growing ethanol feedstocks,
producing biomass, producing biodiesel, etc.
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Water Rights

• All uses of water, except domestic, require a
  permit
• Filing of an application establishes priority
  date, but it must meet criteria to be approved
• Permits include conditions (authorized purpose,
  place of use, maximum annual quantity)
• Annual water use reporting
• A water right is perfected by actual use
• A water right can be forfeited for failing to use
  water for five successive years without due and
  sufficient cause

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Kansas Water Appropriation Act

• Rules and Regulations are promulgated to
  implement the Act
• Five Groundwater Management Districts (GMDs)
  organized in the 1970s in Kansas
• Chief Engineer can also adopt regulations
  recommended by the GMD that are effective only
  within that district
• All areas now closed to appropriations or subject
  to safe yield

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Industrial Water Use

• Thermoelectric power generation and ethanol
  production are reported as industrial water use
• Industrial use covers uses other than power
  generation
• Many industrial uses are served by
• municipal systems
• water marketing contracts
• Many power plants report consumptive use rather
  than diversions in their annual reports
• Water power is a separate use category, which
  is entirely non-consumptive use

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Hydropower

• Bowersock Hydropower in Lawrence uses about one
  million acre-feet per year of water to generate
  electricity
• This is all non-consumptive use it passes
  through the turbines and returns to the river