WE ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM
by
Gordon Morrison
Associate Board Member
As a lad in the '40s, I can recall waking up to see the Four-Mile Creek and Wolf Creek flood plains with water reaching from bluff to bluff and doing great damage. Stores in downtown Council Grove were flooded with water two feet deep by the Neosho River. Many towns that were unprotected by big dams were flooded.
The Tuttle Creek Dam and reservoir, above Manhattan, Kansas, was proposed in the '40s but was always voted down. The farmers whose farms would be gobbled up by the deep water called the dam "Dam foolishness." Then along came the terrible flood of 1951 that put many eastern Kansas towns under deep water. Water marks painted on buildings in Manhattan, Topeka, Kansas City, Jefferson City, Missouri, and St. Louis still show just how terrible this flood was.
The rich, deep level fields along the Kansas River had piles of sand, gravel, and debris on them after the flood. Farmers deep-plowed to a depth of three feet, burying all the flood deposits and bringing the good subsoils up to be placed on top for the new topsoil. The flood hurt town and country folk alike.
Shortly after this record flood, the vote swung to favor building a state network of dams with the No. 1 priority being to prevent flooding. The No. 2 priority was for agricultural irrigation; No. 3 was to provide water for municipality use, and No. 4 was for recreation. These reservoirs were planned to last for a hundred years. When the great cost was spread over that long time frame, it became do-able.
The flooding of Kansas towns on rivers such as the Republican, Smoky Hill, Big Blue, Neosho, Fall, Solomon, Saline and others was stopped when the dams were built. By alternating the release of water through the water gates at the dams, the flood level of the rivers could be staggered and thus controlled. I have seen the Smoky Hill River running bank full at Junction City while the Republican River was nearly dry -- This situation was possible because the Kanopolis gates were open and the Milford gates were closed; thus, the two rivers did not crest at the same time, which could certainly cause a flood. It was a plan of the Corp of Engineers, which is still working well. Kansas towns are no longer endangered by great flooding, which has allowed property values to soar.
Through surveillance, State soil conservationists are learning that these great bodies of water known as reservoirs are silting in and are bing polluted by silt through erosion, through pesticides and fertilizers from improper application of these soil additives, and by bacteria from the run-off from livestock confinements such as feedlots and watering directely from streams. Instead of the costly reservoirs lasting one hundred years, some are already being partially farmed because of silting in; and with other pollutants being at a high level, water quality is going down.
To meet these challenges and thus keep our reservoirs adequate for their intended use, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), the Clean Water Action Plan, Kansas State University, and the State Conservation Commission have come together to formulate a plan called WRAPS (Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy).
Monies in the form of grants are available to develop and implement plans to restore and protect watershed basins in Kansas. Many plans have originated at the top echelon to be directed down to the grass roots, the dirt farmers. Consequently, these great schemes were often not effective or even put to use; they just fizzle out. The organizers of WRAPS are taking a different approach, endeavoring to start it at the grass roots level by getting the farmers involved. Their hope is that the meetings on this level will spawn a workable plan that will keep watersheds and reservoirs functioning as they were designed to do.
Last week, twenty-two Cloud County farmers were invited to a steak dinner, sponsored by the Cloud County Conservation District, to hear a presentation on the WRAPS Program. From the group a committee of farmers will be appointed to draw up their proposals for preserving and protecting the river basin of the Lower Republican Watershed. Then this committee will meet with committees from seven other counties in this watershed to present a grass roots approach to solving the water problems in quantity and quality. The plan is that these county farmer committees be appointed and function throughout Kansas.
Are you beginning to grasp the hugh scope and importance of the WRAPS program - for all Kansas citizens, wether living in town or on farms? All live in a watershed that drains to a common body of water such as a lake or stream. The plan that these committees throughout the state develop will impact all resident of the state and far into the future. It is a bold move that will be encouraged by grant dollars but will originate and be implemented by grass roots farmers who are willing to serve because they see the need and are determined to help protect the water quality and supply for the future, Good water is precious.
