TOPEKA — A group of water officials have told legislators they want to resurrect a plan to pipe water from the Missouri River to irrigate crops in central and western Kansas and recharge the Ogallala Aquifer. The Lawrence Journal-World reports the project would draw water from the Missouri rRiver at wWhite Cloud in extreme northeastern Kansas and send the water about 360 miles through a series of pipelines and canals past Perry Lake, through the Flint Hills and into western Kansas. If the state takes no action in the next 50 years, the Ogallala Aquifer, the massive underground water system stretching from Nebraska to Texas which basically guarantees human life and economic activity in much of the Great Plains, will be mostly depleted, said Mark Rude , the Garden City-based Groundwater Management District No. 3. Kansas and the U.S. Army Corps of eEngineers will fund a $300,000 study to re-examine a 1982 study on the aqueduct project. The 1982 study estimated the cost at $3.6 billion, but officials said estimates now could range from $12.5 billion to $25 billion. In advance of the new study, Rude said his district may seek a water right from the Missouri River. One legislator noted the plan could start a new round of lawsuits from other states or water agencies.
Thursday, Nov. 21, 4 p.m.
