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- Blog: State seeking proposal to develop resort at Clinton Lake State Park June 18, 2013 · 20 comments
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- Letter: Energy folly June 15, 2013 · 41 comments
- U.S. Supreme Court strikes down voter registration law similar to the one in Kansas June 17, 2013 · 75 comments
- Blog: City commissioners now will consider 700 block of Vermont as home for downtown transit hub June 18, 2013 · 15 comments
- Opinion: Redskins mascot can’t be justified June 16, 2013 · 94 comments
- Freshman Frankamp brings hot shot to KU June 18, 2013
- Residents irate over quarry blasting June 18, 2013
- New TV deal expands KU athletics coverage, access June 18, 2013
- Clinton Lake resort discussions resurface September 6, 2012
- Regents to consider bonds for new engineering building June 18, 2013
- Free State’s Dieker, Hodison first-team all-league soccer June 4, 2013
- KU grad student wins national fellowship to help young kids deal with intense stress June 13, 2013
- City girls make all-region soccer June 1, 2013
- Senate Democratic leader asks attorney general whether Supreme Court's voter decision affects Kansas June 18, 2013
- Opinion: Latin America courts U.S. startups June 18, 2013
Comments
DougCounty 7 months, 1 week ago
Thank you Jim.
Joe Hyde 7 months, 1 week ago
Yes, it's green electricity being generated by a new hydro-electric plant built on a privately-owned river dam whose maintenance and major repairs have for years been largely paid for by public tax money. A new hydro-electric plant that transmits its power output to the Kansas City, KS Board of Public Utilities...not to the people of Lawrence.
Oh, and I'm sure this hydro-electric plant will qualify for the "small business owner" tax exemption recently passed by Republican conservatives in the Kansas legislature.
So the Corps releases into the Kansas River millions of gallons of publicly-owned water from already low federal lakes in order to prep a new power plant for years of cash cow duty that financially benefits one Lawrence family. Anyone who looks at this particular "long-standing water rights" arrangement without feeling a certain amount of resentment just isn't paying attention.
DougCounty 7 months, 1 week ago
You completely missed the point of the letter, which was that the dam is needed to maintain the pool that is required for the Lawrence water plant to have adequate levels for its intake. The higher level of the new dam sounds like it will make the water intake even easier, requiring less energy from water plant to get it into the water treatment plant. Seems to me that the dam has a dual use: one private, one public. Is that so bad?
jdcooley 7 months ago
You have a valid point that the power plant benefits one Lawrence family. If early day Lawrence residents had wanted to, they could have built a dam and benefited as a community, but they apparently chose not to. The dam could of course be condemned by eminent domain and made a public utility, at fair market value. As far as the green electricity is concerned, it doesn't really matter who consumes the electricity, we all benefit from the forgone production of brown electricity and the resulting pollution. Westar could have purchased the power for Lawrence, but they apparently passed. I expressed my opinion about Brownback's tax policies in a letter back in October. Kansas water rights policy is an issue that will probably need to be revisited in the future, but intrenched interests will fight any changes to the death.
RalphGage 7 months, 1 week ago
I believe the actual number in the editorial was not 9 million, but 900 million, gallons.
DougCounty 7 months, 1 week ago
That's correct. Or, to put it in terms of the Kaw streamflow, whose annual mean flow ranges somewhere between 90 and 500 cubic meters/sec., would be the equivalent of what flows down the Kaw (on the average) in 1.8 to 10.5 hours.
jdcooley 7 months ago
You are correct, my error. That's why you are/were an editor. The principle is the same as stated, however; the water is still impounded.
bearded_gnome 7 months, 1 week ago
Dougcounty, how dare you try to present facts that might upset somebody's well concieved conspiracy theory! shae on you!
lol.
hujiko 7 months, 1 week ago
there's water at the bottom of the ocean!
jdcooley 7 months ago
Not very potable, however.
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