Wichita ? Kansas has significant challenges ahead as it tries to tackle water problems and shortages, particularly in western sections of the state, said David Pope, former chief engineer at the Kansas Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources.

“The biggest challenge is in western Kansas, as far as long-term depletion of the Ogallala/High Plains aquifer and the effect of groundwater use on streams,” Pope said Thursday after addressing the annual conference of the Kansas Water Congress.

Pope said irrigation in western Kansas would also likely see more regulations.

“Some hard choices have to be made in terms of limiting the use of water” for irrigation, which accounts for 95 percent of water use in some western sections of Kansas, Pope said.

“The other uses will take care of themselves, because water for municipalities and industries is going to need to occur. … The system in place protects all water-rights holders, but if there is not enough water to go around something has to give,” he said.

Pope, who has been chief engineer of the Division of Water Resources for 24 years, retired earlier this summer to become executive director of the Missouri River Association of States and Tribes.

Pope helped define water policy and practice in the state, overseeing water regulation during periods of record demand and drought. He was also involved in negotiations over interstate water disputes along the Republican and Arkansas rivers. Earlier in his career, Pope was also instrumental in the development of the five groundwater districts system in place today in Kansas.

Pope also oversaw the development of water-use regulations that he said are now being used to a great extent with the ongoing development of new industries, such as ethanol, in Kansas.

He spoke Thursday to about 60 people attending the meeting of the Kansas Water Congress, a nonprofit organization started in 2003 to advance conservation and development of water resources in Kansas.