A proposed solar farm in Finney County is one step closer to reality. The Finney County Commission voted Monday to approve a special use permit for a roughly 3,850-acre property in western Finney County. The Lone Bison Solar project would construct a 330-megawatt commercial solar farm, including two solar arrays, solar modules, tracker systems, inverters, collection lines, access roads and a substation that will interconnect with an existing 345-kilovolt transmission line. Monday’s decision does not mean construction will begin. It only means that the county considers the project appropriate for the land under current zoning regulations.
Read more: KSN-TV

The Hutchinson City Council approved temporary regulations for large-scale data centers and battery energy storage systems (BESS) to provide safeguards and create a public process for any potential future development at its meeting Tuesday evening. The regulations prohibit large-scale data centers and utility-scale BESS in all residential districts and require conditional use permits in commercial and industrial districts.
Read more: The Hutchinson Tribune

A McPherson official asked Reno County Commissioners at their June 24 meeting to consider groundwater usage a regional issue instead of on a county-by-county basis, due to deepening wells in McPherson County. Jon Kinsey, director of planning, zoning and environment for McPherson County, said McPherson and Reno, Harvey and Sedgwick counties are included in the Equus Beds Groundwater Management District, formed in 1975 to manage groundwater supplies within the counties. According to a June Water Information Management and Analysis System Program (WIMAS) study, McPherson County has seen its wells deepen by 7.75 feet from the late 1970s to today.
Read more: The Hutchinson Tribune

Kansas’ Largest Night Rodeo returns to Pretty Prairie from July 15 through 18, with a full slate of events every night for its 89th year. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA)-sanctioned rodeo begins each night with mutton bustin’—kids’ sheep riding—at 6 p.m., with the rodeo proper starting at 8 p.m., with bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping, team roping, breakaway roping, and barrel racing events every night, drawing cowboys from the length and breadth of the Great Plains.
Read more: The Hutchinson Tribune

A new immersion center in Arkansas City is highlighting a settlement that has been called one of the most influential cities in ancient North America. Some estimates say the city of Etzanoa housed up to 20,000 ancestors of the Wichita Tribe in a complex society. It flourished along the Walnut River from about 1450 to 1700.
Read more: www.derbyinformer.com

The largest city in Kansas is looking to join two cities across the globe — Big Spring, Texas and Windhoek, Namibia — in converting what is flushed down the toilet into what comes out of the water tap — treating sewage to drinking water standards and pumping it directly into the water supply.
Read more: Wichita Eagle