Whose Water Is It?
Melissa Luthi
Central Kansas Cooperative in Education
Salina, Kansas

Overview:

Through a study of the Wet Walnut Creek-Cheyenne Bottoms area, students will develop an understanding of the system of water use regulation. This will include the impact on natural resource consumption, wildlife habitats, local farming culture, community and personal economics, and technological advancements.

Grade Levels: Grades 5-8 Gifted Education, Grades 7-8

Time Needed: 7 - 10 days

Geographic Themes:

Human-Environmental Interaction, Movement, and Region

 

Kansas Social Studies for Benchmarks, Grade Levels 5-K:

The student will understand the connections among people, places, and environments in the local school and community, Kansas, the United States, and different nations in the world.

 

The student will understand the effects of economics, science, and technology in the classroom, school, community, Kansas, the United States, and different nations in the world.


National Geography Standards, Grades 5-8:

#5	The geographically informed person knows and understands that people create regions to interpret Earth's complexity.
#11	The geographically informed person knows and understands the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface.
#13	The geographically informed person knows and understands how the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth's surface.
#14	The geographically informed person knows and understands how human actions modify the physical environment.
#16	The geographically informed person knows and understands the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.



Outcomes:

The students will understand the issues affecting distribution of water rights in the Wet Walnut Valley, and the impact of distribution decisions.

 

Performance Objectives:

1. The student will describe water availability, crops, drainage basins, migratory birds, and wetland habitat needs as they relate to Cheyenne Bottoms.
2. The student will describe irrigation methods, water use levels in irrigation, impact of irrigation on yields, and historical water rights.
3. The student will write a position paper; then conduct mock local meetings utilizing the papers produced in the class.
4. Students will conduct a hearing to determine who will be allowed to use how much water.

 

Vocabulary (see Glossary):

Ground water Surface water Precipitation Evaporation Drainage basin

Aquifer Recharge Run-off Acre foot Wetland

Migratory Habitat Chief engineer IGUCA Junior Rights Senior Rights

 

Materials:

• Readings for teacher use as background and for students' research, such as the Wet Walnut IGUCA and Upper Ark handouts
• Cheyenne Bottoms brochures on driving tour and layout
• Nature Conservancy booklet
• Precipitation and evaporation band maps of central Kansas
• Topographical maps of Kansas
• Magazines or books about wetlands or migratory birds
• Sample of position paper format


Procedures:

Day One:

1. Examine maps of Kansas: precipitation, evaporation, municipality location/population, drainage basins, and land use. Discuss how and why features on one map affect or are affected by the others. Predict use of water in other areas of the state based on the information on the maps. Encourage students to draw on prior knowledge from travel, news, logic, relatives, etc. If time allows, discuss water quality issues.
2. To begin to understand water access rights in Kansas, you must recognize that a limited amount of water exists. We can only access a small portion of the water that is not in glaciers, oceans or seas. Much of the surface and ground water has some level of contamination. Water quality is usually a separate issue from water access rights.
3. Citizens of Kansas automatically have right to the water for domestic use. For uses other than domestic you must be granted rights from the Chief Engineer's Office.
4. In awarding water rights several factors must be considered. First, the level of seniority or how long rights have been accessed at that site. Water rights can be sold, just like mineral rights, with or without the land. Rights that existed before a certain year are considered senior; everything else is junior to those rights in varying degrees. For example, if three people had rights established in 1927, 1952 and 1975 respectively, the 1952 rights are junior to the 1927 but are senior to the 1975 rights.
5. Secondly, the amount of water available to be awarded must be determined. This is calculated using historical records of use, streamflow data as available, weather data precipitation and evaporation rates), and some monitoring of wells.
6. Water is then allocated based on reasonable use or need. If all the available water is already allocated, a person may not receive any rights. Just because a person could drill a well and hit water, that does not mean they have a right to use it other than household-only wells.
7. In the example we will be studying a recreational/environmental user who had an allocation that had not been fully used in recent years. Due to increased upstream use, changes in streamflow meant the allocation could not be met in normal years. Because the right was deemed valid and senior to some of the upstream rights, changes were imposed on existing rights.

 

Day Two:

1. Focusing on the Wet Walnut area, discuss typical irrigated and non irrigated crops. Wheat is grown by both methods; alfalfa and corn are irrigated as is milo. Looking at maps, discuss the way water drains normally and after heavy precipitation. Explain how the erosion-reducing practices work to capture rainfall (terracing, watershed dams), so that it can be utilized for crops. Ask students to consider the other impacts these structures have. Bring out the ideas of reduced volume and rate of streamflow due to reduced runoff, reduced flooding, and decreased water available to downstream users. Using a local agriculturist or extension agent, you can discuss actual costs of irrigating (equipment and pumping) and income level from increased yield. Establish typical water use levels prior to the IGUCA. Senior rights are 15 inches per year and junior are 12 inches per year. (Students can be asked to create a diagram or model demonstrating the volume of water used over a given field in a year.) The economic impact of increased personal income should be introduced, including income taxes, property taxes based on increased land values when irrigated, use of taxes for schools and county services, and the cycle of money spent at businesses within the community.
2. Looking at the Nature Conservancy and driving tour booklets, describe Cheyenne Bottoms. If possible, take a field trip yourself and videotape the driving tour. Identify the migratory birds, their paths, populations, and other wetland sites (Ramsar sheet). Speculate at what has caused many wetland sites to disappear. Explain the impact of inconsistent water levels on the return of birds, growth of cat-tails, and maintenance of wetlands.
3. State that the Kansas Wildlife and Parks believed the water rights of Cheyenne Bottoms were not able to he met adequately to meet the need for effective habitats for migratory birds. In order to get the amount of water needed on a consistent basis, farmers upstream would have to reduce their consumption. They sought to get water from the Wet Walnut area. If time allows, examine on maps from Day One the other possible areas to acquire water Pose the question: How will the farmers respond to the idea of reducing their water rights?

Day Three:

1. Assign students to be irrigation farmers (one junior and one senior rights), Otis residents (two), elevator employee, mayor, county commissioner, bird watchers (two), Kansas Wildlife Federation member (one), Kansas Wildlife and Parks ranger, conservationist, duck hunter, and farmer bordering the Bottoms, etc. Give them time to reread information and notes from previous days. Discuss position papers and the need to support opinions with evidence. Establish expectations and the rubric for grading WITH the students. Explain that Day Four will be mock committee meetings, and Day Five a hearing based on information only from those meetings. Students will begin writing position papers defining what they believe are key issues, taking a stand as a member of the group assigned. If you have too many students for only two committees, assign some experts who will research and present recommendations at the hearing. Possible roles: director of another wetland site, developer of new low-water-use irrigation system, and crop hybridization expert.

Day Four:

1. Students will read position papers from Cheyenne Bottoms supporters and then from the farmers. Within each committee, members should have 10-15 minutes to review papers and ask questions of the author. Conduct an organizational meeting to prepare their input for the chief engineer. Leave 5-10 minutes for Question/Answer time to clear up misconceptions, misrepresentations and concerns. Ask each committee to select two representatives to speak FOR THE COMMITTEE to the Chief Engineer. The committee must prepare a one-page committee position paper to hand to the Chief Engineer. (ALL position papers must be turned in on the last day.)

Day Five:

1. The Chief Engineer can be an appointed student, the teacher, a principal, a local water district manager, etc. Committee members and concerned citizens should be seated where they can hear presentations. The representatives should be on opposite sides of a horseshoe of tables with the Chief Engineer at the top. The Chief Engineer will call the meeting to order, state the purpose, and ask for the recommendation of each committee, and experts if present. A limited time for concerned citizens to speak should be designated. The engineer can ask questions and accept questions as needed. A ruling should be made BASED ON INFORMATION PRESENTED IN THE HEARING. The advantages and disadvantages of the ruling should be outlined on the board.
2. The actual ruling should be discussed and compared to student-created ruling. The emphasis should be on the need for cooperation and peaceful resolution of conflicts and accepting responsibilities hand-in-hand with exercising our rights.
3. Finally, have each student self-evaluate the experience. Utilize videotapes in assessing involvement in the committee meetings.

 

Assessment:

Establish rubric with students for each activity or for entire lesson. Teacher observation and self-evaluation of active listening and participation in discussions (#1 &2) is 10 points; gathering of additional information (#1 & 2) is 10 points; contribution to group meetings (#4) is 30 points; and research/position paper (#3) is 50 points.

Establish rubric with students based on quantity of information available and time allowed. Suggested point values: accuracy 30; clear position 5; citation of evidence 5; acknowledgment of opponent strengths 5; and presentation or voice 5.

Average teacher evaluation and the self-evaluation equally.

Extensions:

1.	In what situations can we apply our learning to resolve water rights conflicts? What precedents have been set by this ICUCA?
2.	What technological developments have occurred as a result of water use regulation? What others are anticipated?
3.	What-if scenarios - how would current regulations adjust to  a. large chemical contamination of Cheyenne Bottoms pool 2;  b. Quivira NWR or Jetmore ore watershed lake development as migratory site; or  c. reduction of funds to maintain and protect Cheyenne Bottoms (potential contamination, unregulated pool levels, cat-tail overgrowth, hunting regulation enforcement).
4.	Resolution suggestions for local use conflicts over any natural resource.

Resources:

• Kansas Audubon Council. (n.d.). Cheyenne Bottoms driving tour. Author.
• Nature Conservancy. (n.d.). Conservation Kansas: The Nature Conservancy's campaign to preserve the best of natural Kansas. Author.
• U.S.. Fish and Wildlife Service. (1996, March). Ramsar wetland sites in the United States.
• For additional readings and possible speakers, contact the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Kansas Wildlife Federation, local bird-watching groups, Kansas Water Office, Wet Walnut Irrigators, Larry Panning (Ellinwood), or Bernie Juno (Otis).

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