Topeka ? A new group charged with providing a vision for managing the state’s natural resources met for the first time Thursday the same day a new report ranked Kansas among the nation’s worst violators of the federal Clean Water Act.

Sheila Frahm, who was elected chairwoman of the new Kansas Natural Resources Legacy Alliance, said she was not familiar with the report by the United States Public Interest Group. But she said, “That will be something that we need to look at.”

The Washington, D.C.-based group’s report, based on water pollution violations over a 15-month period, found 41 percent of Kansas’ largest regulated facilities discharged a significant amount of pollution over the legal limit.

That put Kansas at No. 9 among states for percentage of major facilities in violation of their permits. Nationwide, 32 percent of the largest facilities were in serious violation of the Clean Water Act, according to the report.

The new Legacy Alliance has been directed to study the state’s natural resources and make recommendations to the 2004 Legislature.

Created by the Legislature, the alliance includes 15 voting members and nine advisory, nonvoting members. Nearly all the members are in the agricultural business, and advisory members include representatives from major agribusiness associations.

The group plans to have public hearings throughout the state, but no schedule has been set.

Mike Hayden, Kansas Secretary of Wildlife and Parks, told the alliance Kansas faced steep challenges in preserving natural resources.

“We haven’t put the funding in that’s necessary if we are going to have strong natural resources in the future,” he said.

The state’s population is shifting to the urban and suburban areas where people need to have easy access to parks and lakes, Hayden said.

But Kansas has the lowest percentage of public lands 3 percent of any state in the nation. Also, the expansion of urban areas is eating up land that many animal species need to survive, he said.

Agriculture Secretary Jamie Clover Adams urged the alliance to recognize the importance of farm and ranch operations, and said the state needed to explore new ways to settle disputes between agricultural interests and environmentalists.

“We have to find a better way to resolve environmental conflict. Litigation is not the answer,” she said.