Water issues dominated agenda discussion at the Larned City Council’s meeting Monday. In the first item of new business, the council approved the establishment of a Water Rights Task Force followed up with the purchase of a new rotary fan press filtration unit for the city’s wastewater plant. City Manager Brad Eilts told the council that the statutory window was closing on the city’s ability to secure water rights for the community based on peak usage. For the past four decades, the city has operated under an unsecured water right to consume 601.2 million gallons annually. By state statute, a community has 40 years to acquire and perfect a water right amount. For Larned, that period of time expired in 2019, at which time the City of Larned applied for and received a five-year extension.
Source: Great Bend Tribune
