Untitled Document

Water use reporting requirements
by Doug Helmke, LLG, Water Rights Tech

Every living person in Kansas uses water. No question there. Does the law require every person in Kansas to report their water use? No, only the owners of non-domestic water rights or permits to appropriate water have to report. New in 2001 is the request to all public water systems which purchase water. The Water Use Reports for 2000 were due by March 1 to the Division of Water Resources.

Those people who own a well which serves their home and no one else, and has no other use other than household purposes, are not required to file a report. Those owners of water rights for irrigation, municipal use, industrial use, recreational use, stock watering, hydraulic dredging, water power, thermal exchange, dewatering, artificial recharge, contamination remediation and fire protection are required to file. The Division of Water Resources (DWR) mails a use-specific form to the person shown in their records as owner in the first days of January following the year to be reported. Owners can designate a different person to receive the water use report form, however, the ultimate responsibility to file a report remains with the water right owner. It is very uncommon for the owner of a municipal water right to designate a non-owner as their water use correspondent. A report must be filed whether water was used or not.

Before 1988, DWR received water use reports for only approximately 60% of the water rights after two mailings. Now, approximately 93% of the reports are received with only one mailing. The completion of one annual report generates data that is used by the Division of Water Resources, the Kansas Water Office, the five Groundwater Management Districts in Kansas, the Kansas Geological Survey, the United States Geological Survey, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Kansas Department of Revenue and many county appraiser's offices, and KRWA and other organizations too, for that matter.

The owner of a water right for municipal use is expected to supply all of the information requested on the form. For those who have a copy in their files, I'd like to give a brief explanation of the form.

First, Part A of the report is primarily the Maintenance and Perfection portion. Here the owner is requested to supply the rate of diversion, the quantity of water diverted, the beginning and ending meter readings, the total quantity of water diverted, the units of measurement (gallons, million gallons, acre-feet, etc.). Although the instructions (erroneously) say to provide the rate of diversion if you don't have a meter, this information is important and should be reported. Besides showing changes if the well's or pump's diversion rates over time, this information can be used by the authorities to make decisions regarding new wells in the area or changes of the location of the well. The well depth and depth to water should be provided if it is available.

Part B is the Distribution System Section. In this section are 7 columns. Column 1 is used to report the quantity of raw water diverted. (The total of raw water diverted should equal the quantity shown in Part A.) Column 2 requests the quantity of wholesale water purchased.

Column 3 requests the quantity of wholesale water sold. Column 4 requests the quantity of water sold to industries, stock waterers, and bulk purchasers. Column 5 requests water sold to residences and commercial establishments. Column 6 requests water provided free, to such establishments as the City Park or Swimming Pool. If accurate records have been kept, the total of Columns 1 and 2 less the total of Columns 3, 4, 5 and 6, will equal the total of Column 7, which is the unaccounted for water.

Part C is the Population, Water Rates and Connections portion. Line 4 of Part C on this year's form should say that a copy of new rate structures for residential users should be submitted if the rates changed in 2000, not 1999. Part D is for Wastewater Discharge information. Part E is the Water Purchased and Sold Portion. In this section, the names of the wholesale purchasers and sellers are to be supplied. The total quantity shown in this section should equal the totals in Part B, Column 2 and 3.

Measurements of the depth to the water table are helpful to people studying the aquifers of Kansas. Additional information that would help make the measurements more useful is whether the well is or has been recently used at the time the measurement was taken. Additional information regarding the amount of time that has elapsed between the use of the well and the date of the measurement is very helpful. In the case when a water system has an alternate source of supply, the information regarding the identity of the alternate supply can be helpful. It is also helpful to provide information regarding upgrades of the equipment that have occurred.

Supplying information about the old equipment and the new equipment may have a positive effect at a later date. This is also a good time to update DWR with new phone numbers, addresses, names of new operators, etc. Remember that over 14,000 of these reports are returned to DWR, most of them in the last two weeks of February. If you ask a question, or for an update of your system's address, etc., it will probably not be acted upon immediately.

Keeping and reporting your water use data is probably something that most look at as a chore to complete because DWR requires it. Why not adjust your perception to see the long term benefits and turn this project into an annual report to the people who will follow after you? When someone wonders why a certain well was pumped more or less than another, the information you put on the water use report may show why. You just might save them a lot of time and the system a lot of money. Besides the benefits of the information that is saved for your system, the data helps Kansas understand the seriousness of the state's water problems.

The bottom line, Kansas water use data is used to understand how the state's water resources are being utilized, to justify the perfection of water rights, to identify where water can be saved for current and future generations, and to make just decisions when there isn't enough water for everybody during times of shortage. Do your part; complete your reports early and accurately.

Do your part; do it right

The Division of Water Resources believes that Kansas water use data is the best in the United States and they recognize that the owners of the water rights are the key to this successful program.

New this year is expansion of the water use program to gather information from the public water systems that do not hold their own water rights but purchase water from a system that does.

Someone once said, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." This can easily apply to water use reporting.

Again, every public water system is requested to complete and return their water use report. The report for 2000 was due March 1. There is a penalty of up to $250 for not filing the report. Any person filing a document knowing it to contain any false information as to a material matter shall be guilty of a class C misdemeanor.

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