Horton ? The Kickapoo Tribe is asking a small water district in northeast Kansas to use its power of eminent domain to take land it needs to build a reservoir for the water-starved reservation.

The people who would lose land for the project are vowing to fight it, claiming it would ruin their farmland and livelihoods.

Caught in the middle is the Nemaha-Brown Watershed Joint District No. 7, which will debate on Wednesday whether to lend its eminent domain powers to the project.

The Kickapoo Tribe wants to build a 475-acre reservoir, which it says would provide about 1 million gallons of water daily. The Nemaha-Brown board approved the project in 1994. Congress approved it in 1998, but has not allocated any funds toward its construction. The reservoir would cost an estimated $7 million, with the tribe paying about $5 million.

Currently, the reservation gets its water supply from the Delaware River, which feeds a tiny lake. Persistent drought in northeast Kansas has caused frequent problems with water on the reservation, and the tribe has received federal grants in the past to truck in water for its 1,800 residents. In August, the river ran dry, forcing the tribe to purchase 90 million gallons of water in three months.

“No community in the United States would stand for a water system like this,” said Damon Williams, director of water resources for the tribe. Of the 1,288 acres needed for the project, the tribe owns only 223 acres. And that’s what worries the 12 property owners whose land would be flooded or turned into hiking trails.

“Our land’s not for sale,” said Rodney Lierz, whose farm off U.S. 75 would be reduced from 262 acres to 170 acres by the reservoir.