Topeka ? Kansans would pay a fee to help purchase water storage from federal reservoirs under a proposal filed by a Lawrence lawmaker.

State Rep. Tom Sloan, a Republican, said his measure is aimed at preventing unpopular water releases that are sometimes done to help navigation on the Missouri River.

“These are things we need to address,” Sloan said.

He said the proposals grew out of discussions during the state’s first Kansas River Summit, which was held in October at Kansas University’s Dole Institute of Politics.

Sloan’s bill would charge public water supply systems 5 cents per 1,000 gallons of water to set up a “reservoir sustainability fund.” It would also be funded by a $5 surcharge for annual boat licenses and several other recreation surcharges.

Sloan said it would raise about $4.5 million per year and be used to purchase water storage capacity in lakes owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If Kansas owns the water storage, it would be in charge of if and when to release water, he said.

Kansas officials have criticized the corps for releasing water from Perry, Milford and Tuttle reservoirs in order to lift the level of the Missouri River for commercial traffic.

The drawdowns hurt boating and other forms of recreation, devastating local businesses, critics say. Plus, they argue, the amount of water released has little effect on lifting the Missouri River for any significant length of time.

Sloan also has proposed a resolution asking Congress and the corps to form a partnership to work on plans to sustain the productive lives of reservoirs.

Four out of five Kansans rely on drinking water from reservoirs, which were built to last 50 to 100 years. Of the state’s 24 federal reservoirs, half of them are in the 40- to 60-year-old range.

And many of them are losing their capacity to hold enough water for drinking and flood control because of sedimentation.

Soil washes from farmland and river banks and settles to the bottom of the lakes.

Clinton Lake’s storage capacity has decreased by 6 percent, but that figure is greater than was originally projected. Some large reservoirs, such as John Redmond in southeast Kansas, have lost almost half of their capacity due to sedimentation.