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9-4 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Beneficial uses are specifically defined in all three states, and generally include domestic, municipal, and agricultural. Colorado further recognizes water use for instream flows for fisheries habitat and recreation, and will issue water rights for such reservations. Management of ground water in Kansas and Nebraska is limited to the creation of optional ground water management districts in areas of critical concern. Colorado apportions ground water in a manner similar to surface waters, requiring the granting of a water right by the state regulatory agency. PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES The major problems in the Kansas Subbasin involve irrigation water supply, flooding, municipal and rural water supply, erosion, fish and wildlife habitat, and water quality. Important opportunities exist in the subbasin for increased irrigation. There are two types of problems involving irrigated agriculture--lack of adequate surface water supply and diminishing ground water supplies. Considerable amounts of cropland are irrigated using surface water systems, including a number of large Water and Power Resources Service projects. Irrigators dependent upon water from surface projects in the Republican River drainage in Nebraska face declining water availability caused by upstream ground water pumping. Rapidly increasing development of sprinkler irrigation systems utilizing ground water is diminishing the flows available to Federal surface impoundments and thus to the irrigation districts involved. In several areas, irrigators using ground water face diminiShing supplies, declining water levels, and increasing costs for pumping. The problem of declining water tables is particularly acute in the Ogallala aquifer underlying. the western portion of the subbasin including the Upper Republican River Basin. Other areas subject to severe ground water decline are located in the Big and Little Blue basins in Nebraska.