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Audubon of Kansas<\/a> is suing the Kansas Department of Agriculture in state court in hopes of restoring Quivira National Wildlife Refuge\u2019s water rights, the Topeka Capital-Journal<\/em> reports<\/a>. Quivira is a 22,135-acre refuge and relies on large, open ponds and impoundments to hold ducks, geese, swans, cranes, pelicans, egrets, plovers, and many other migratory bird species. <\/p>\n Quivira and its state-owned partner-in-habitat, nearby Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area, combine to create one of the most beloved waterfowl hunting hotspots in the region. But as the Great Plains continue to deal with crippling drought, Kansas farmers working land upstream from Quivira are drawing water for irrigation\u2014water that would otherwise go to the refuge. AOK argues that this overuse of water goes against state water law and notes that the issue has been going on for decades. <\/p>\n On January 15, 2021, AOK filed a lawsuit<\/a> in a U.S. District Court against then-Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, then-director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Aurelia Skipwith, and two officials from Kansas\u2019 Department of Agriculture. In it, AOK claimed that these federal and state entities tasked with protecting and fulfilling Quivira NWR\u2019s senior water right were failing to do so, allowing the Refuge to lose water to what they claimed were junior water right holders for over three decades. <\/p>\n Kansas water law follows the adage of \u201cfirst in time, first in right,\u201d a doctrine held by most Great Plains and Western states. In simple terms, whoever used water from a given surface or groundwater resource first (as of the start of statehood) holds the most senior water right. Enough water must exist for that user to get their fill\u2014a set volume of water recorded with the state\u2014before junior water right holders can divert water for themselves. In times of shortage, the \u201cfirst in time, first in right\u201d rule, otherwise known as the doctrine of prior appropriation, still applies.<\/p>\n According to the 2021 lawsuit, Quivira NWR holds a right to 14,632 acre-feet of water per year with a priority date of August 15, 1957, as well as a few additional water rights with priority dates before 1945. In total, they claimed the Refuge has a right to some 22,000 acre-feet annually. According to an investigation conducted in 2016 that was cited in the lawsuit, water users with junior rights are allegedly overusing from both the groundwater stores and the surface waters of the Rattlesnake Creek basin, costing the Refuge 30,000 to 60,000 acre-feet of water per year from 1995 to 2007. But junior users had been causing problems for longer than that too, the investigation found. The \u201cimpairment record,\u201d as the lawsuit called it, went back 34 years. In 18 of those 34 years, junior water users cost the Refuge at least 3,000 acre-feet of water annually. <\/p>\n A federal appeals court threw out the lawsuit<\/a> in May 2023, due to some procedural issues. But the lawsuit wasn\u2019t exactly necessary anymore; in February, after years of negotiations with local landowners and government officials, FWS formally requested<\/a> that the Kansas Department of Agriculture\u2019s Division of Water Resources secure the water necessary to meet Quivira\u2019s water right. <\/p>\n In April, chief engineer Earl Lewis responded to the request with a public letter<\/a> explaining that any changes to water allocation in the basin wouldn\u2019t be feasible until 2024 because the investigation from 2016, cited in the original lawsuit, needed updating. But AOK says that the KDA-DWR was dragging their feet in reviewing the FWS\u2019 request. Enter the new lawsuit, filed in Shawnee County Court on July 11, which aims to compel the state to get the job done\u2014without valuing junior water rights used mostly for irrigation over Quivira\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n \u201cIf [the chief engineer] can decide which property rights to protect and which property rights not to protect, then our water law is effectively impotent,\u201d Burke Griggs, AOK\u2019s lawyer and professor at Washburn University School of Law, told the Capital-Journal<\/em>. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not the way the law is built.\u201d<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/strong> A Pacific Waterfowl Oasis Ran Out of Water. These Duck Hunters Are Footing the Bill for Some More<\/a><\/p>\n Drought continues to wrack Kansas and the Great Plains. The Ogalalla Aquifer is expected to go mostly dry<\/a> within five decades. Average groundwater levels across western and central Kansas fell by over a foot<\/a> in 2021 alone. <\/p>\n Ask any hydrologist and they\u2019ll say that wetlands are crucial<\/a> for ground and surface water retention. They act as sponges that hold water in the ground and suspended among root systems longer. They anchor soils and decrease the risk of flash flooding and subsequent erosion\u2014not to mention the massive flocks of migratory birds they hold. Balancing these interests with Kansas\u2019 reliance on agriculture, the second most fruitful industry in the state<\/a> and the source of $17.6 billion in revenue in 2022, is tricky. But according to AOK, Quivira and the services it provides are worth their weight in water.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we talk about rural culture and sustaining rural communities, this is a real threat for the next generation,\u201d Audubon of Kansas executive director Jackie Augustine told the Capital-Journal<\/em>. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t want to be the one sitting by and saying, \u2018Well, I could have done more.’\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nInto the Depths of Kansas Water Law<\/h2>\n