Monday morning, Barton County Extension Agent Alicia Boor traveled to Hays’ Sternberg Museum to attend one of several conferences being held across the state to discuss the future of water in Kansas.  At stake, according to Susan Metzger, Chief of Planning and Policy at the Kansas Water Office and Vision team leader, is the future of agriculture and economic development throughout the state.  
“The fact that the governor is looking towards the future and seeking citizen input to formulate a water plan is a good thing,” Boor said.  “ It drives home the point that water should be kept at the forefront of people’s minds whether their primary use is for watering lawns and gardens or they are growers or producers.”   
Metzger and Earl Lewis, Assistant Director at the Kansas Water Office, facilitated the discussion that has become a hot topic in Hays as the shopping and economic bright spot on the western plains has been forced to search outside the city limits for new sources of water.  
In February, the Hays Daily News reported that the city would exercise rights to 8,000 acre feet of water attached to the R9 Ranch south of Kinsley in Edwards County.  This caught Boor’s attention.  
“Water is a finite resource,” she said.  “With Hays willing to pipe water from their ranch in Edwards County to Ellis county, that could start affecting our immediate aquifer, which will affect how much water we have to use in our area also.“
The R9 Ranch is located over the Great Bend Prairie aquifer, which serves part of Barton County, along with parts of Barber, Edwards, Pawnee, Reno, and Rice Counties, and all of Kiowa, Kingman, Pratt, and Stafford Counties.  
According to a recent report in the Hays Daily News, city commissioners two weeks ago approved an ordinance essentially declaring the nearly 7,000 acre ranch as the “most viable, long-term water solution for the city of Hays.
In order to access the water, it will need to be pumped more than 35 miles, which will make Hays the first municipality to be subject to the  Kansas Water Transfer Act which has not been triggered since it was enacted in 1983.
At an estimated cost of $65 million, Hays looks to the project as a solution to the already tough problem of shoring up the city from the uncertainties of drought.
Already, the city has issued a water warning.  This means parks and playing fields for public use will only receive enough water to keep roots alive, said Paul Briseno, Assistant Hays City Manager, and no outside water use will be allowed between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.  In addition, individual users that exceed the second conservation tier will see a jump in the cost per unit of water from $7.42 to $10.30.  These measures will be in effect through March and beyond until the warning is reduced to a watch.  
Visual aids presented by Lewis showed the estimated usable lifetime for the High Plains Aquifer in western Kansas and  surrounding Hays already below minimum thresholds for supporting irrigation at levels of 400 gallons per minute, or with 25 years or fewer left.  The area around Great Bend and further south, however, indicated an estimated life of 100 to 250 years.