The Department of the Interior recently announced a major funding move, allocating $9 million to key water projects in Kansas. This investment, driven by the Biden administration's Investing in America agenda and funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, aims to strengthen water sustainability and resilience in the region.
Michael Brain, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, delivered the announcement at the Equus Beds Aquifer Recharge, Storage, and Recovery Project near Wichita. The Equus Beds project, a critical water resource serving over 20% of Kansas’s municipal, industrial, and irrigation needs, is slated to receive $7 million.
The goal is clear: recharge the aquifer by redirecting up to 100 million gallons of water per day from the Little Arkansas River.
The city of Wichita relies on two main water sources: the Equus Beds aquifer and Cheney Reservoir. However, projections indicate that these sources may not be enough to sustain the city’s future water needs as demands grow. To address this, experts explored artificial recharge as a strategy to increase the aquifer’s capacity. Beyond meeting future water demands, this recharge process could also help protect the aquifer from saltwater contamination caused by plumes originating from the Arkansas River to the southwest and the Burrton oil field to the northwest.
The first phase of the full-scale recharge project was executed from 2007 to 2012, followed by the launch of Phase II in April 2013, which now operates with a designed recharge capacity of 30 million gallons per day.
Getting into the present day, this new strategic mix of injection and infiltration offers much-needed support amid declining groundwater resources in south-central Kansas.
Water Conservation Efforts in Kansas
Alongside the Equus funding, the Kansas Voluntary Agreements Program will receive $2 million to back the Water Transition Assistance Program in the Prairie Dog Creek and Rattlesnake Creek Basins. This initiative focuses on water conservation through temporary land fallowing and permanent water rights retirements, aiming to conserve around 10,000 acre-feet of water.
These investments build on the nearly $33 million already funneled into Kansas from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, targeting infrastructure upgrades, water recycling, and modernization efforts through WaterSMART projects. All these projects are crucial to shoring up Kansas’s water management systems and ensuring long-term reliability.
Brain emphasized the urgency, noting, “This investment from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda will help Kansas address immediate needs due to drought. As the state works to slow declining surface and groundwater supplies, these resources will advance efforts to safeguard local water supplies, equipping families and communities for the future.”
This initiative is part of a broader national strategy under the Inflation Reduction Act, which has earmarked $550 million for domestic water supply projects and $4 billion in water conservation initiatives across drought-prone regions like the Colorado River Basin. So far, the Bureau of Reclamation has approved 222 drought mitigation projects and 16 domestic water supply projects, committing over $2.5 billion to counter the effects of prolonged droughts.
