Overland Park ? When the underground streams that irrigate the fields of semiarid western Kansas still seemed inexhaustible, state law treated water as a tool to be used in building prosperity.

Water unused was water wasted, went the thinking that prevailed in 1945, when Kansas dropped the tradition that gave citizens exclusive use of water on their property and adopted laws allowing the “appropriation” of water rights to others.

If Farmer A shirked his duty to help build Eden on the prairie and let years go by without exploiting the aquifer under his land “for beneficial purposes,” his neighbor — Farmer B — could obtain a right to pump that groundwater for his own crops.

Today, the Kansas Water Appropriation Act of 1945 remains the legal framework for apportioning water among those who have it and others who want it.

Amendments

But other regulations have been layered on top of the act, some by the state and still others by the five regional Groundwater Management Districts that overlie the aquifers in south-central and western Kansas.

Meanwhile, the Legislature has periodically amended the appropriation act in response to changing attitudes and conditions, especially the dwindling aquifer. In 1988, for example, the state finally made it mandatory for water rights holders to file annual water use reports or face a $250 fine.

That’s a lot of law for farmers to keep in mind as they decide when and where to pump water. And for the most part, they know what they’re doing, said Kansas University law professor John C. Peck.

“I’m not saying there aren’t a lot of conflicts and there aren’t a lot of issues that have to be resolved,” said Peck, who has written extensively on the Water Appropriation Act and maintains a part-time law practice.

“But in general, when you think about the complexity of this (appropriation) law, you’d think everyone would be in the dark about it, and I just don’t think farmers are generally in the dark. I’ve always been impressed with their overall sophistication with this act.”

Compliance

A sprinkler sprays water onto a Kansas hay field. The Kansas Water Appropriation Act of 1945 remains the legal framework for apportioning water among those who have it and others who want it.

Sometimes, knowing the law and following it to the letter are two different things, and state or regional officials may have to nudge farmers into compliance.

The staff of Garden City-based Groundwater Management District 3 has carried out what director Hank Hansen calls an “enlightenment” campaign about the penalties for using faulty water meters. Accurate meters help farmers use only the water to which they’re entitled.

“We’ve increased our monitoring probably 400 percent in the past two years, and the problems are decreasing regularly,” Hansen said. “A few years ago, we found lots of meters that were faulty. Those numbers have dropped down to about 5 percent of what we inspect.”

Farmers are just now getting to know the latest innovation in state water law — five-year “flex accounts,” a management and conservation tool added to the Water Appropriation Act in 2001 under the sponsorship of Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler.

Extending the aquifer

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Traditionally, farmers have an incentive to pump their full water entitlement each year because they forfeit any amount unused at the end of the year. “Flex accounts” give them a five-year entitlement, letting them adjust their use in any given year according to weather conditions and their own needs.

But there’s a conservation tradeoff for such flexibility: Those who open “flex accounts” surrender 10 percent of their water entitlement. That means farmers must make complex calculations, figuring past usage and future probabilities, before deciding if “flex accounts” make good business sense for them.

For Huelskamp, who farms — and irrigates — the southwest Kansas land his grandparents settled in 1925, the subject of adequate groundwater is far from academic. It’s critical for him and his neighbors that the water table be high enough that they can pump it at a reasonable cost.

“Anything we can do to extend the aquifer’s usable life, we’ve got to try,” said Huelskamp, 34. “People my age are saying, ‘What’s it going to look like around here in 50 years with very little irrigation?”‘