De Soto ? De Soto officials are ready to take ownership of a water treatment facility at the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant, which the city has been operating since 1998, although it had no written agreement or license to do so.

Johnson County officials, however, do not want De Soto to have the facility. The county fears transferring the water plant could have a negative effect on the county’s efforts to find a developer for the 9,065-acre site.

The dispute has enraged some De Soto officials, who see the plant as the city’s primary water source and a potential revenue stream if it were to supply water to neighboring communities.

“The city has committed to staying in the water business,” said Greg Johnson, city administrator. “But it seems every time we turn around, there’s another roadblock.”

De Soto officials say they need the title to the land to gain financing for improvements for the water facility. Without ownership, the city must agree to a wholesale water contract with Water District No. 1 of Johnson County.

If the city doesn’t get the plant, the water district has to know by March so it can engineer new transmission lines to De Soto, Johnson said.

“By continuing to be held hostage by a process we can’t fully control, we’re at the mercy of others and we’re at a point of crisis,” he said. “The county appears to be ignoring our position.”

Rehabilitating the Sunflower plant would cost about the same as a connection to the water district — around $700,000. So far, De Soto has spent about $500,000 to keep the plant operating, Johnson said.

Johnson County officials say their position has never wavered: No land transfer until negotiations with a yet-to-be-named Sunflower developer are concluded.

“We prefer the entire property be transferred comprehensively and in accordance with our master plan,” said Annabeth Surbaugh, the chairwoman of the Johnson County Board of Commissioners. “We want to avoid any piecemeal transfers for the benefit of the full community.”

Don Jarrett, chief legal counsel the commission, said a plant transfer to De Soto could cloud a developer’s plan for the former munitions site.

“We’re working hard to make this a bigger transaction, and we’d just as soon not have any of these intermediate transfers occur until we can get the whole thing pulled together,” Jarrett said.

Commissioner John Toplikar, who represents De Soto, is working to broker a transfer of the plant to De Soto.

“It’s unrealistic to think that supplying a basic need such as water for the people should be held up by some speculative land transfer that may or may not happen,” Toplikar said.