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Page 1 of 2 <br />1.. return _ta orign l..pag_e <br />edition TJL HE HuTCHINsoN Nt% <br />online <br />Lawmakers: Awareness vital to solve water <br />woes <br />By Tim Vandenack <br />GARDEN CITY - Crafting long -term fixes to address the state's varied water woes will require <br />increased awareness and broader public participation, a group of lawmakers at a water conference <br />here said Friday. <br />"It's time we do something, it's time we work together," said Rep. Dan Johnson, R -Hays. Debate on <br />the matter is ongoing and proposals are out there, he said. "It just gets more and more important." <br />Rep. Loyd Ward, R- Garden City, added that lawmakers "will not make bad decisions," but they need <br />adequate information to make good legislation. <br />"We are relying on folks like you to make sure we get educated," he told participants at the <br />conference, sponsored by the Kansas Water Congress, an independent, nonprofit group that aims to <br />unite the diverse voices on water conservation policy. <br />Western Kansas has been hit hard by dry weather in recent years, although it has eased somewhat <br />this summer, heightening concerns about possible depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, the water <br />source for many of the region's crops. Urban and rural interests, meanwhile, continue to clash in <br />some areas of Kansas over water rights. <br />Proposals are out there to address tightening water supplies, and measures are being implemented, <br />said Robin Jennison, president of the Kansas Water Congress. Still, awareness on a wholesale level <br />is lacking, and that's what will be needed to promote more profound action. <br />"I think this room would say (the water issue) is critical. In the public's mind, it is not," he said. <br />"Things don't get dealt with in the Legislature until the public has identified it as an issue, and that's <br />really what's lacking." <br />Part of the awareness issue may stem from urban lawmakers who don't fully appreciate the <br />seriousness of the water situation, Johnson said. But he also noted that some farmers with operable <br />wells "don't even want to talk about conservation" while they have viable water supplies. <br />What's more, said Sen. Janis Lee, D- Kensington, the urban -rural split isn't the only divide when it <br />comes to water issues. Dryland farmers and their counterparts who irrigate sometimes can't meet <br />eye -to -eye. <br />http: / /www.dailynews. net/ hutchinson /cgi- bin/printerpage.pl 8/23/2004 <br />