Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly proposed creating a state natural resources office and spending another $30 million each year to address the state’s water crisis in her State of the State address Wednesday night. In her speech, Kelly, a Democrat, looked back over the first 25 years of the 21st century and said she sees “so many good things on the horizon” in the next 75 years. But she called the state’s dwindling water supply “seriously concerning.” “Without that water, the agricultural industry that fuels our economy and sustains our rural way of life cannot survive,” Kelly said. The Ogallala Aquifer, which provides water to the western third of the state, has been dwindling for decades. But despite warnings over the years that the Ogallala, the largest underground store of freshwater in the nation, was a finite resource, the state allowed crop irrigation to drain parts of the aquifer to crisis levels.
Source: Kansas Reflector
