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<br /> <br />agricultural. Colorado further recognizes water use for instream <br />flows for fisheries habitat and recreation, and will issue water <br />rights for such reservations. <br /> <br />Management of ground water in Kansas and Nebraska is limited <br />to the creation of optional ground water management districts in <br />areas of critical concern. Colorado apportions ground water in a <br />manner similar to surface waters, requiring the granting of a <br />water right by the State regulatory agency. <br /> <br />PROBLBIIS AND OPPOR'.rlJHITIES <br /> <br />The major problems in the Kansas Subbasin involve irrigation <br />water supply, flooding, municipal and rural water supply, <br />erosion, fish and wildlife habitat, and water quality. Important <br />opportunities exist in the subbasin for increased irrigation. <br /> <br />There are two types of problems involving irrigated <br />agriculture, lack of adequate surface water supply and <br />diminishing ground water supplies. Considerable amounts of <br />cropland are irrigated using surface water systems, including a <br />number of large Water and Power Resources Service projects. <br />Irrigators dependent upon water from surface projects in the <br />Republican River drainage in Nebraska face declining water <br />availability caused by upstream ground water pumping. Rapidly <br />increasing development of sprinkler irrigation systems utilizing <br />ground water is diminishing the flows available to Federal <br />surface impoundments and thus to the irrigation districts <br />involved. <br /> <br />In several areas, irrigators using ground water face <br />diminishing supplies, declining water levels, and increasing <br />costs for pumping. The problem of declining water tables is <br />particularly acute in the Ogallala aquifer underlying the western <br />portion of the subbasin including the Upper Republican River <br />Basin. Other areas subject to severe ground water decline are <br />located in the Big and Little Blue basins in Nebraska. <br /> <br />Opportunity for irrigating high quality cropland exists at <br />several areas. In Kansas, irrigable lands below Glen Elder and <br />Kanapolis Reservoirs could be develcped for surface water <br />delivery systems. Opportunity also exists for expanding <br />irrigation in eastern Colorado using water impounded in Bonny <br />Reservoir. In Nebraska, suitable lands in the Big Blue and <br />Little Blue basins have potential for development of irrigation <br />systems. Institutional conflicts involving diversicn of water <br /> <br />-208- <br />