In a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. requested that the Secretary make funds from the Bureau of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado River Basin Conservation and Efficiency Program (LC Conservation Program) available to entities in the State of Kansas. 

If made available, funding could be used to support conservation efforts in the Rattlesnake Creek Basin and support water levels in Quivira Wildlife Refuge, which is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

Both the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are sub-agencies of the U.S. Department of Interior.

“Access to the LC Conservation Program would immediately help mitigate the impacts of curtailing 60,000 acre-feet of water annually and help restore consistent water levels in the basin,” Senator Marshall wrote in his letter. “Many junior water rights holders in the basin have already implemented conservation practices and it is my goal to support and expand upon those efforts. The streamflow of the Rattlesnake Creek basin also ultimately provides water to the Arkansas River, a navigable river that flows from Colorado to the Mississippi River.”

Background

The LC Conservation Program is one of many different federal funding opportunities Senator Marshall is working to make available to land owners in the Rattlesnake Creek Basin, he said. 

Rattlesnake Creek is a primary tributary to Quivira Wildlife Refuge, which holds a senior water right. In February, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claimed an impairment on Quivira’s water right. 

Funding is necessary to help landowners implement or expand practices that conserve water use, improve soil health, and improve streamflow in the Rattlesnake Creek. 

To read the full letter go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Osf7W3doDAwr0hOOxquCVN-TCVudDTpJ/view