University Daily Kansan
Thursday, April 28, 1977
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Reservoir water to influence Douglas County life Water districts see answer in reservoir Increase is coming soon
By DARYL COOK
Reporter
There are more than 2,000 people living in five rural water districts in Douglas County and they say they want water from Clinton Reservoir.
BUT FEW ARE certain how much the water will cost.
There are nearly 3,000 people living in Baldwin. They have approved a $1 million water hook-up from Lawrence to get water from Clinton Reservoir, and the 1,800 people who live nearby have told Baldwin officials that they are interested in buying some of that water.
In addition, three of the rural water districts aren't certain how they will get their water.
Many of these people have in the past depended on the 36 inches of average annual rainfall and the two water-saturated sand-stone bodies beneath the area for water, Lee Wright, a farmers' Home Administration agent, said recently.
But droughts in recent years forced these people to search for other sources of water, he said, and Baldwin and five water companies are beginning to look to Clinton Reservoir,
"ITS (CLINTON RESERVOIR) bound to mean that there is an availability of water." Wright said. But, he added, "it's still going to be up to the local communities to alleviate an adverse situation and if they don't do it it won't ret done."
However, there has been state pressure to use regional water planning and distribution in areas where state reservoirs provide water.
The Kansas Water Resources Board, the state agency that controls use of public water bodies, has been supporting such organizations as the Henderson, water board aled, said.
HENDERSON SAID THAT the board who approached Lawrence city officials with the idea of regional water planning and those officials had given their support.
The program would be more efficient and less expensive than several smaller plans to get water out of the reservoir, he said, and provide the reservoir's water facilities to process the water.
Lawrence recently passed a bond issue for the construction of a second water pipeline.
The two water plants would be capable of producing nearly 27.1 million gallons a day.
THE CITY WOULD in turn sell the towns and water districts, Henderson said.
"One large plant will be better than five small ones," he said.
Lawrence is currently the only town or water district to have completed plans to obtain and process water from the reservoir.
Lawrence will be the only town or water district to have a treatment plant with a water-intekt structure, needed to draw water from the river to the treatment plant built into the dam.
LAWRENCE CONTRACTED with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to have its $167,000 water-intake structure built into the dam as it was constructed, according to Vic Counts, Clinton Reservoir Project Manager.
Counts added that another such facility would be impossible to build onto the dam.
oak Wildgen, assistant Lawrence city manager, said Lawrence planned to use its
"We don't want little subdivisions in our use of problems with annotation, but we want them."
HE SAID THAT water contracts with rural water districts No. 4 and No. 5, south of Lawrence, restricted the number of units of Lawrence could serve to avoid annexation problems.
Widgen also pointed out that Lawrence controls utilities—including water-inthe contracts included a raise in water
Wright said, from 52 cents for a house
to $104 per square foot.
These water districts have always depended on Lawrence for their water, Wright said, and have negotiated 40-year contracts with Lawrence to obtain the five trillion gallons a day they requested from the water board.
Ralph Whaley, water district No. 5
Wildgen said that Baldwin's contract to buy reservoir water from Lawrence will be completed in three miles north of the pipeline, which is planned to run east and west from Baldwin.
representative, said that the average water district about 85.50 a thousand gallons
The clause was included, he said, to avoid annexation problems for both towns.
BALDWIN CITY OFFICIALS have estimated that the expense of the water book-up could cause water rates to rise as much as 178 per cent.
Water districts currently are prohibited by law from leaving property taxes for bonds to pay for their utilities. Water has to be paid for directly by the rural dwellers.
Consequently, if rural dwellers wish to buy processured reservoir water, they must purchase it from the water districts that have bought it from Lawrence. Part of the cost of Lawrence's new treatment plant would be passed on to the rural dwellers.
ALROY FLORY, REPRESENTATIVE for water district No. 2, which is in the southwest part of Douglas County, said that his water district had been waiting for the reservoir to be filled before negotiating plans with the state before making plans for a water intake structure.
Klein said his water district had been studying plans to buy water under contract from Lawrence, but wasn't ruling out the possibility of building its own treatment plant.
Water district No. 1, west of Lawrence, in the Western Hills area, has made no plans either, according to Ron Klein, water district board chairman.
Klein noted that his water district, like No. 2, was adequately supplied with water from wells and had requested water from the water board as an alternative source.
"WOULD HAVE it as a standby in
case anything could happen." Elvie said.
case anything could happen," Flory said. If even reservoir water were made available as a standby source, Douglas County farmers wouldn't be able to use it on their crops, Lee Van Meter, Douglas County Extension agent, said.
Irrigation has been difficult to use in Douglas County, he said, because the hilly
Photo by CORKY TREWIN
'Where is the water?'
terrain made it expensive--about $400 an acre.
LIVESTOCK OWNERS have faced a similar problem, Jack Wiseman, Douglas County dairy farmer. said When a severe drought hit the area, he said, and water source was cut off, he forced to移走 thousand from Lawrence—sometimes several thousand gallons a day.
"That reservoir won't make a nickel's
worth of difference for me," he said. What
would that mean?
Others think the water from Clinton
Observoir is badly needed by farmers and
farmers.
"All the water districts have got to be hooked up and connected to Clinton and the Kaw River," Whale said, "because they're the only sources of water."
Environmental groups work for compromises
By KAREN DIRKS
Clinton Reservoir, for all practical purposes, will be a compromise lake.
Reporter
Representatives of local environmental groups and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say the lake is a compromise as a result of several meetings about Clinton.
"We had wanted no motor boats, no development and we came up with a plan. I was the former president of the Jayhawk Audubon Society, said recently. "The Corps听了 to conservationists more than with any other lake in Northeastern Kansas," he said.
In 1973 the Citizen's Coalition for Clinton, a temporary organization designed to be a sounding board for public opinion regarding Clinton was formed.
DAN PALMQUIST, president of the coalition, said the group formed a steering committee made up of various organizations to get a fair representation of interests. The committee included representatives from environmental groups, the Chamber of Commerce, realtors and a local motorcycling club.
Nevertheless, Finfrock said, difficulties developed.
"There were arguments between the conservationists and the developers," he said. "We knew there would be commercial buildings, but we were pushing for Clinton in the first place.
"We decided to work for a clean lake free of the gross development we see in the city."
VIC COUNTS, Clinton project manager, said of the coalition meetings, "In essence, we tried to the benefit of all the input, weighing this to get the best of both."
Environmental changes at Clinton will be minor, Counts said. Fishing will be changed from stream-sized fish, such as catchfish, to pool-sized fish. Counts said that since the county has no fish, fishing and that since Clinton is public there would be more access to fishing.
Counts said the upper reaches of Clinton, which constitute about half of the 7,000-acre lake, would be reserved as a quiet, no-wake boating area.
MIKE BRONOSKI, district fisheries biologist for the Kansas Forestry, Fish and
Game Commission that there was a public land for fishing as a result of Glen Count.
"But we will lose the stream fishing,"
"butpeek said, "which is preferred by many
fishers."
Palmquit said another thing that interested people was a totally quiet lake.
More than 400 people signed a petition stating that needs weren't been met for quiet recreation. The petition also said children shouldn't conducive to quiet types of recreation.
Palmquist said that there were too many boating interests to have a quiet lake and that the committee had voted to split the lake into wake and no-wake areas.
BUT PALMQUIST said that committee members who opposed any sort of wake area had written a report for the Corps as a result, as if as a five-year experiment be considered.
"We now have a system of lakes, each of them treated in the same way by the Army Corps of Engineers," Palmquist said. "Why can't we be brought, throughout the state, to have water for boating and another for primitive, quiet areas?" The latter are left out."
A Corps environmental statement said that since there weren't any endangered wildlife or wildlife habitats in the Clinton region, it wouldn't extensively affect the environment.
But the statement that wildlife habitats would be destroyed by the flooding of 15 miles of the Wakarusa River and its tributaries.
IN ADDITION, habitats will be altered by residential and commercial developments drawn into the area by the lake and by intensified agricultural practices down-
Finnfrock said, "We try to keep the development as far from the lakeshore as possible and to keep it confined to specific areas."
But Finfrock said that the early meetings bad resulted in procrust.
"Clinton will be unique in many ways among Corps projects with its primitive areas and backpack traps. The Corps is the only one an ear to conservationists," he said.
The University of Kansas will begin
the University Clinton Restore vior
before the lake falls.
water 20, water bills will begin a five-year climb resulting in a doubling of water
Increase is coming soon in KU, city water rates
Bv JAMES McLEAN
Reporter
Beginning June 6, students and faculty may pay their own water bills will notice about 48 to 86 increase and the largest change will be facing a whopping 60 per cent increase.
KU will experience a $2,700 a month,
$32,400 a year hike in water charges, based upon projections of water use by the Department of Buildings and Grounds.
'cause those super patterns, niffy collars and fantastic fit are really something else! Sure, he could look just like all those other guys .. but then he wouldn't be the one for me. Call him the rugged individualist or whatever you want.
KU OFFICIALS SAY there is little chance for moisture measures easing the impact of rain on crops.
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"So much of the water used is in support of other activities and other functions, there might not be the capability to cut back all the time." Buildings and Grounds supervisor, said.
Orok said that if dry weather continued he would expect to use more water than he is now.
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"There's an investment in landscape that you've got to realize," he said.
Oroke said there were a number of programs, both academic and recreational, that demanded large quantities of water. Currently KU's annual water bill is about $5,500, said Martin Jones, associate vice chancellor for business affairs.
Jones said the water rate like probably wouldn't severely affect this year's budget because the fiscal year ends only one month after the rate increase goes into effect.
THE IS THE first year KU has been given a separate line item appropriation in the budget for utility costs, Jones said. In previous years the utility budget was included with the budget for supplies and equipment.
Last summer which was a very dry summer—from July to October KU used 92 % of the water used by the residence baths. Using the current water rate this amounted to more than $2,500. It will cost KU $3,000, or about the same amount of water this summer.
JONES SAID a supplemental appropriation for increased utility costs could be requested from the Kansas Legislature through the Board of Regents if the water station was not owned. The water station was taken last winter when the natural gas shortage forced KU, to buy
Watson said the five-year approach would allow the city to bring the water rates in line with the actual costs of operating the treatment plants and paying for the services. The cost implications made each year, instead of implementing one larger increase during a single year.
quantities of fuel oil to heat campus buildings.
ACCORDING TO THE rate study, the percentage increases for commercial and large commercial classes, although larger than the overall rate increases, are projected to recover slightly less than the costs of service.
Another choice, Jones said, would be to the State Finance Council for enlistment.
"Any time that you have a debt to a pay off you have to increase the rates complementary to it,"薇Mercmer, city clerk, said. "We probably would have had a rate increase but built the dum or rate but它 certainly would not have been a rate increase like this."
The rate structure will be studied each of the next five years to determine exactly what rate changes are necessary to raise the money for the bonds and for water service in general, Buford Watson, Lawrence city manager, said.
The rate increase will go to pay off $ 8.4 million in general obligation bonds being sold to finance the construction of the Clinton Water Treatment Plant. The actual cost of these bonds would be about $ 14 million when interest charges are added to the original cost of the bonds.
"We've delayed having a rate increase because of inflation and other things, waiting to see what the rate study was going to tell us," she said.
A RATE STUDY by Black and Veatch, consulting engineers of Kansas City, upon which the present rate increases are based, projects that operation and maintenance expenses will more than double by 1981, when the new treatment plant should be constructed for investment expenses for 1981 were $42,000, compared with projected 1981 costs of $1,052,000.
PROJECTIONS IN the rate study show that increases in the water rate will be higher in 1978 and 1979 than the approximate 20 per cent increase effective this year. Increases in these years will be approximately 27 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively. Rate increases for 1980 are reflected at 18 per cent and 5.4 per cent for 1981.
The last time Lawrence had a water rate increase was in 1969.