In an agreement that District 1 Commissioner Kirby Krier hailed as a “win-win,” the Barton County Commission Wednesday morning approved swapping a portion of land the county bought for its sandpit south of Ellinwood for water rights now held by Knop Sand.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on this,” said commission Chairman Shawn Hutchinson, District 3. He, District 1 Commissioner Kirby Krier, County Counselor Patrick Hoffman and County Engineer Berry McManaman have worked on this project since the start.
“I think we’ve finally gotten to a point that everybody agrees, everybody’s getting a good deal and a fair shake all the way around,” Hutchinson said.
“About a year ago, give or take, the county purchased a tract of land adjacent to our sandpit” with plans to expand the sand mining potential, Hoffman said. However, the seller wanted to sell more property than the county wanted, so it wound up with 20 extra acres.
Early this year, the commission authorized selling that 20 acres, he said. As payment, the county would accept money or exchange it for water rights.
“The adjoining landowner, Knop Sand, said yeah, they’d be very interested in working on a deal,” Hoffman said. “So we started discussions with them.”
He said McManaman worked very hard to identify and survey the existing pipeline, get a survey for the 20 acres that were actually going to be sold and hammer out what water rights were being exchanged. He has also worked with the Kansas Division of Water Resources (through the Kansas Department of Agriculture).
“it’s really great when a deal comes together that’s makes great sense for both parties,” he said. “This will allow the county to continue to expand our sandpit for a long time in the foreseeable future, and also allow Knop Sand to enlarge their business, so really both sides benefit from it.”
With the existing sandpit operation, “right now, we probably only have about three or four more acres that we can pump,” McManaman said, adding their existing water right is by the 11 and a half surface acres. “So by going through with this deal, this trade with Knop Sand, we’re going to bump that up to where we’ll have about 54 acres of water rights, so it’s a huge deal for the county. We’re going to be able to operate at that location for many, many more years.”
The Division of Water Resources is prepared for the county to submit the paperwork. “They told me it will take several months to get approval on the water rights transfer,” McManaman said.
Because this is an exchange for water rights, the commission had to approved the deal with Knop Sand and sign the deed for the property, Hoffman said. However, he stressed, they won’t file the deed and Knop won’t take ownership until the water rights transfer get the state’s approval.
“They are good with it,” Hoffman said of the Knop Sand.
“I have talked to them and they’re very happy with everything,” Krier said. “It’s a win win for everybody.”
“They need this for their future expansion,” Hoffman said.
