Report on the Nelson Buck Unit, Kansas

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The Flureau of Reclamation, using a 1929 -1961 study period, has estimated that the virgin flow for Beaver Creek amounts to an average of 230300 acre feet per year. If the compact administrators should agree with this computation, the allocation to Kansas could be approximately 9,100 acre feet. This would still be 2,400 acre feet less than the present Kansas uses plus the depletion resulting from the proposed unit. The report states that "use of water in Kansas in excess of that State's allocation would, at a minimum, require permissive interpretation of the compact provisions by the members of the Republican River Compact administration. The necessity for actual reopening of the compact in order to assure legal availability of sufficient water for development of the unit would rest with the compact administration. The X%ansas and Nebraska compact administrators have been contacted concerning the potential depletions b -r the unit. Both administrators have declined to furnish official statements on the matter until this report is available for their review. From the discussions, however, it appears that an agreement within the compact could be reached which would permit development of the unit." There is no provision in the compact relative to its modification other than the one mentioned above which permits increases or decreases in allocations proportional to water supply. "article IX of the compact permits the officials admin- istering the compact, by unanimous action, to adopt rules and regulations consistent with the provisions of the compact. It does not appear that this permission would include the power to change the allocation to any state beyond that allocation which is derived from water supply computations. In that case, negotiations of a new compact would be required to accommodate the construction of :lhe Nelson Buck unit as proposed, The operation of the unit would result in major flood control benefits. In addition, recreation and fish and wildlife benefits would accrue due to holdover storage in the conservation capacity of the reservoir. However, it does not seem logical to me to attempt to arrive at a new compact for the benefit of a reclamation project on which reservoir evaporation would amount to a third more than depletion by the irrigated acreage, and would be more than half of the total allocation to Kansas which might result from a recomputation of the virgin water supply of Beaver Creek. IRMC s mm Memorandum -3- May 16, 1967