Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday pledged strong opposition to an attempt to reduce the city’s rights to water at Clinton Lake.

“Clearly, we do want our rights protected any way we can,” Mayor David Dunfield said. “Whatever support we can lend as a commission to the effort, I hope we would lend.”

Rural Water District No. 3, which starts west of Lecompton and extends into Shawnee and Osage counties, is asking the state for some of the Clinton Lake water Lawrence locked up years ago.

The city has state-granted rights to 4.86 billion gallons of water a year from Clinton, plus an additional 8.15 billion gallons from the Kansas River. For now, that’s more than enough. In 2001, the city’s 28,000 water customers consumed 4.46 billion gallons.

But officials say Lawrence will grow into its excess capacity. The city, which had a population of 80,000 in 2000, is expected to grow to nearly 150,000 people by 2025. All those new residents will want to make ice cubes, take showers and water their lawns.

“This is an area where staff has been proactive and far-thinking for decades now,” Commissioner Mike Rundle said Tuesday of the city’s early purchase of water rights.

Chris Stewart, the city’s water director, said Lawrence was already paying the state to keep the water in reserve.

“To date, we’ve probably spent $250,000 since 1994 for that particular contract,” Stewart said.

Rural Water District No. 3 is looking ahead, too, telling the state it needs 200 million gallons a year. All the water at Clinton is spoken for, by Lawrence, Baldwin and six rural water districts. If RWD No. 3 is going to increase its share, another entity — probably Lawrence, which holds the rights to the vast majority of the water — must take less.

City Manager Mike Wildgen said he visited Tuesday with officials with the Kansas Water Authority, which will decide the issue.

“This is not going to happen quickly,” he said. “Clearly, we think these rights, which we’ve paid for, are important for the growth of the city.”