MANHATTAN —   The Kansas Department of Agriculture Division of Water Resources (KDA-DWR) will host two public meetings on Monday, Oct. 21, to share information related to upcoming action responding to the impairment complaint by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of Quivira National Wildlife Refuge. The public meetings will take place at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Stafford County Courthouse Annex, 210 E. 3rd Ave. in St. John. Both meetings will include the same information.

Water rights owners in the area were sent notice this week of the KDA-DWR plan to regulate water rights. The meetings will review the anticipated regulation and the ongoing work with local stakeholders to develop a Water Conservation Area (WCA) that will provide flexibility in use for those regulated water rights. All area residents are welcome to attend one of the two meetings. KDA also plans to livestream the presentations and archive them on their website.  

More information related to the impairment complaint and investigation findings, the planned water administration, and plans to develop a WCA to provide flexibility can be found at agriculture.ks.gov/Quivira. Questions can also be addressed by calling KDA–DWR’s Stafford Field Office at 620-234-5311.