Topeka ? An official who sometimes is called the state’s “water czar,” controversial enough in the 1990s to inspire a law curbing his authority, plans later this month to leave his job regulating water use throughout Kansas.

David Pope has been chief engineer and director of the Department of Agriculture’s Division of Water Resources since 1983. Besides regulating how much water cities, industries and farmers can use, the division inspects dams.

Pope has been heavily involved in the state’s lawsuits against Colorado and Nebraska over low water levels in the Arkansas and Republican rivers. During his tenure, the division set rules designed to slow the depletion of aquifers and to allocate water for new uses when an area’s water rights already are fully appropriated.

This year, his proposal to greatly expand an area in central Kansas in which groundwater use is restricted inspired a legislative backlash. In 1999, legislators enacted a law to have the division’s rules reviewed by the Department of Administration, and a legislative leader suggested Tuesday that Pope’s job be removed from the civil service system.

But legislators, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and others praised Pope as a nonpolitical, highly knowledgeable professional who brought stability to water policy.

“He’s the one person who knows more about water policy than anyone else in the state,” said Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton. “Most of us depend on him to keep us out of trouble with water.”

Time to move on

The 61-year-old Pope, whose last day with the division is June 18, will become executive director of the Missouri River Association of States and Tribes, which serves as a forum on water and environmental issues involving the river.

He said during an interview that after more than two decades as chief engineer he believed it was time to move on, adding that he sometimes has worked 80 hours a week and wanted more time with his family.

“It was really more precipitated by the opportunity that I saw in the Missouri River job,” Pope said. “I’ve spent a lot of time and effort in this position, and I really need to spend more time with my family.”

He and his wife, Julie, have two college-age daughters.

The division has an annual budget of about $8 million and 101 full-time and part-time employees, more than half of them associated with appropriating water rights.

Its power to regulate how much water can be used led to the description of Pope’s job as “water czar,” but he doesn’t like the term. His salary is about $92,000 a year; the range for the job is between $69,000 and $94,000.

“There’s a tremendous number of people on the staff who work very hard,” Pope said. “I delegate a lot of authority to people. There’s thousands and thousands of decisions that are made, and I don’t make them all.”

Overall praise

House Speaker Melvin Neufeld said he believes the chief engineer shouldn’t be covered by the civil service system. Removing the job from the civil service would make it easier for secretaries of agriculture to dismiss chief engineers – and, Neufeld said, make chief engineers more accountable.

“In spite of the fact that I might have had some disagreements with Dave, he’s actually done a decent job,” said Neufeld, R-Ingalls.

But Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, disliked Neufeld’s idea, saying the governor could appoint a strong environmentalist to the job. Also disagreeing with Neufeld was Craig Volland, a Sierra Club activist, who said Pope’s status as a civil service employee made him more effective.

“I think he made a good-faith attempt to conserve groundwater in western Kansas to the extent that the law allowed,” Volland said. “One of the reasons he was effective was that he felt he had the leeway to enforce the rules and even perhaps move forward some on trying to preserve groundwater.”

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement: “David has dedicated more than 20 years of his life to improve the lives of Kansans today and for generations to come.”