The Kickapoo tribe and 32 water districts in northeast Kansas will seek at least $400,000 through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a study of where the region will find its future water supply.
Within the next few months, the tribe and 32 county and rural water districts, which make up Public Wholesale Water Supply District 21, will submit a proposal to the corps office in Washington, D.C.
"It's our understanding that this will be a 2002 program that will be addressed by Congress this summer or later this fall," said John White, consultant and engineer for the Kickapoo tribe.
He said the study is expected to cost between $400,000 and $700,000. Last year, members of the wholesale water district, the corps and the Kansas Water Office initiated the study with $92,000.
The district, formed in fall of 2000, includes the cities of McLouth, Nortonville, Valley Falls, Winchester and Oskaloosa and several area rural water districts. The district came together as the Pikitanoi Water Project, which the Kickapoo started six years ago to address the tribe's long-term water needs.
During the first phase of the study, Cathy Tucker Vogel, an environmental scientist for KWO, said she has been collecting data about water systems, use and needs from the 32 entities. However, she said not everyone has submitted questionnaires yet.
"The quicker they get them in, the quicker we can get going," she said.
White said the project has been a collaborative effort between the different groups, but some of the water districts have more immediate water needs than others. He said the group has not decided what the project will entail and what would solve the problem, though a probable water source is the Missouri River, which the water districts would tap with a pipeline.
"The real key is find something that will address the long-term water needs of northeast Kansas," he said.
White said the tribe continues to struggle for water during dry times. The reservation gets its water from a makeshift pipeline between its water treatment plant and a three-acre pond about a quarter-mile away.
"Their situation has not changed during the last few years," he said. "We made it through the drought this summer, and right now we're waiting to see the effects of snow to help us."
The group will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Kickapoo Reservation near Horton to discuss the study.
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