Study: Incentives help groundwater usage

A study by University of Kansas researchers revealed a five-year, $2.9 million state program offering landowners cash to permanently retire water rights in the High Plains Aquifer was effective in high-priority conservation areas.

Analysis of the Kansas Water Right Transition Assistance Program that was developed to trim groundwater or surface water consumption showed incentives had little influence in creek subbasins or in terms of water taken for drinking purposes. The report examined program effectiveness from 2008–2012.

“Maybe it’s a start, but it’s not something you would expect to stabilize the depletion,” said Tsvetan Tsvetanov, a KU assistant professor of economics. “This is just a drop in the bucket. Essentially what we need is some alternative source of income for those people living out there, aside from irrigation-intensive agriculture.”