Catching Up With Withering Longton in the August Heat

[CCarl]

I sure hope folks read John Walker's flowery August 25 post on Facebook! Here's the link;  https://www.facebook.com/john.walker.1042

By all the gods, I did not know that Longton is a hidden gem or a vibrant tapestry. That post is so full of bouquet, I can almost smell all the garden flowers in full bloom . . . . oh wait, Longton is in a Stage 3 water emergency, and we can't water outdoors. All the flowers are dying, like our town. (See more below)

BTW, I think Seiners is meant to be Seniors, unless Longton has a netters club tucked away somewhere, maybe down by the river?

Is it re-election time already, or does John Walker really feel that eloquent every day? I know he doesn't really see 277 incredible souls in Longton! After-all, we have a handful of drug houses I think he'd love to bust, and enough stealing going around that I'm certain he'd love to see some thieves in jail too. Wouldn't he? I hope so.

How about the Sheriff pause on that overzealous, evocative command of the English language long enough to make a few arrests? That would help Longton more than anything else at this point. MORE THAN ANY THING ELSE. More than his colorful praise, even more than a new business or two.

Sheriff, any leads on all the home B&E's we've had the past 18 or so months? How about the check forgery stuff going on with that on-line bank? Have you identified the culprit who stole from that place with the delicious food menu? No? What's up with that, haven't all the cameras inside that eatery, not to mention the ones the taxpayers footed the bill for outside, been of any help? Then just what is all that public surveillance good for?

I'm not suggesting LEOs are not busy, I'm sure they are. But most of us incredible souls would sure appreciate an arrest or five. And if y'all want to take on some more investigating, how about looking into criminal activity from Longton City Hall directed at property owners? How about multiple cases of trespass where City workers have entered private property, without property owner permission or a court order? How about a city official that gets appointed to a Board of an organization, and uses an official city capacity to influence the Board to deliberately act against the taxpayers? Or a city official that unlawfully starts a petition to condemn property because of a personal issue against the property owner? Now aren't those a few hidden gems? Or should we call them graft, conflict of interest, or influence peddling? Or are they just government as usual?

Speaking of government crime, how about insisting the DA take down that sign on the County Courthouse doors requiring the public to identify themselves, and to state what office they need to visit. There's a fella here in Longton, one of our 277 incredible souls, who has visited courthouses in the adjacent counties and been able to enter without doing any of that. When he tried to do it in our county he was arrested. For the readers, here is a link to his information;  https://www.facebook.com/KSHILLBILLYS

Scroll down the posts to July 25. I do not understand why was he arrested. Both the federal and Kansas Bills of Rights are pretty clear about the right to privacy. Apparently nearby counties understand this. I will probably work on a separate post about the Fourth Amendment.


On to the water emergency we 277 incredible souls are facing. Longton is within Rural Water District 1 (RWD1). RWD1 receives its treated water from Public Wholesale Water Supply District 20. District 20 draws its water from Murray Gill Lake, aka Quivira Lake, north of Sedan. The current uptake platform sits about 670 feet upstream of the dam, and was about 60 feet from shore at July 2022's water level (per GoogleEarth). I do not know how close to shore it may be now, with the lake level significantly lowering the past year.

District 20 has an undated, published Municipal Water Conservation Plan. It lists three stages of water emergency. Here is the information on Stage 3, our current level of water emergency.

Goal: The goals of this stage are to reduce peak demands by 50 percent, and to reduce overall weekly consumption by 25 percent.
Triggers: This stage is triggered by any one of the following conditions:
1. The District's storage has fallen below 50 percent capacity;
2. Treatment plant operations are at 90 percent capacity or more for three consecutive days;
3. Lake or reservoir elevation is 7 feet below normal seasonal level;
4. Demand for one day is in excess or 0.700 million gallons per; or
5. Emergency conditions related to repairs or water quality.
Education Actions:
1. The District will make daily news releases to the local media describing present conditions, and indicating the water supply outlook for the next day.
2. The District will hold public meetings to discuss the emergency, the status of the District water supply, and further actions which need to be taken.
Management Actions:
1) The District water supplies will be monitored daily.
2) Leaks will be repaired within 24 hours of detection.
3) The District will seek additional emergency supplies from other users, the state or the federal government.
Regulation actions:
1) Outdoor water use will be banned. ('except for livestock' was added here, by hand)
2) Waste of water will be prohibited.

The information, posted on Facebook and at Longton City Hall on July 31, said RWD1 is at Stage 3 because the lake level is 7 feet below seasonal normal. I have not seen daily updates. The updates I have seen are essentially uninformative.

I have two major points of concern regarding Stage 3 of the Water Conservation Plan. (A) The original text says 1) Outdoor water use will be banned. Then added by hand it says, 'except for livestock'. To many of us who grow gardens for food, watering them is equally important as watering livestock is to the rancher. 'Except for livestock' deserves reconsideration, it might be discriminatory. (B) Without further modification to Regulatory Action #1, it is now illegal to use outdoor water to fight a fire! That renders our city-wide fire hydrants useless. I assume that is an unintended oversight (that both D20 and the City should have noticed), but it is also a legal hairball that needs to be corrected with more than an ink-pen after thought. It may be the entire outdoor ban should be re-evaluated.

Now comes a bunch of questions that I hope future updates and/or meetings will address. The questions are geared to generate thought about both short- and long-term consequences of the drought, and for residents of Longton and RWD1 to consider options and contingencies to adjust to water shortages.
1) What about triggers 1, 2, and 4? How close is District 20 to those triggers also kicking in?
2) After four weeks of implementation, how has Stage 3 helped realize the goals of reduction in peak demand and overall weekly consumption?

I've heard mention that District 20 wants to relocate the uptake platform further from shore, which will allow it to access deeper water, insuring water availability for a longer drought, or for increased consumption.
3) Is the uptake platform relocation automatically triggered by a Stage 3 emergency?
4) If question 3 is answered 'yes', does District 20 already have the funding in place?
5) How long will the new platform take to permit, relocate, and become operational?
6) Does the existing platform need to remain in place after an entirely new one is located further from shore? Or would the District be withdrawing water from two platforms once the new platform is functional?
7) What will the improvements/additions cost?
How much will the improvements/additions increase our water rates? (nice programming snafu, a smiley face instead of an '8')

We are in a 15-month drought, so far. A probable continuation of the drought merits questions about the longer-term capability of District 20 to supply all RWD1 and Longton water.
9) What happens to our water supply if the drought becomes 30-months long? Is the new uptake platform still able to meet RWD1 demand?
10) What happens to our water supply if our average 40-42 inches per year of precipitation becomes 20 inches per year, making the past fifteen months the new normal (including temperatures) going forward?
11) Can District 20 continue to serve all of us if question 10 occurs? At what cost?
12) Is there another emergency stage scenario where water is simply rationed to us, say limiting us to 20 gallons per person per day?
13) At what point, relative to the Stage 3 triggers, can District 20 not provide water to RWD1?
14) Does the District have any other mitigating measures it can implement, beside buying water from other suppliers?
15) Does the State require District 20 to have a Water Appropriations Permit for Murray Gill water to be sold to RWD1?
16) If so, should the lake's water level continue to drop, at what water level/volume is District 20's Water Appropriations Permit suspended by the State?
17) Assuming the drought continues, can District 20 forecast an approximate month and year that the Appropriations Permit would be suspended?
18) If normal precipitation patterns should resume in September/October 2023, how long would it take for lake levels to normalize, and for Stage 3 to end?
19) What did our general area do for water during the 'dust bowl' years of the Great Depression?

Well, that's enough questions for now. I doubt Longton City Hall has any meaningful input. What's worse, with its obvious lack of leadership, I doubt City Hall has any contingency plans. Say I'm wrong, I'd love to hear them. Hopefully, District 20 personnel can be more helpful than the City government.

Folks, think about it, and realize how foolish we were in Longton to spend money on a City Hall building we did not and do not need, instead of funneling the money to fix or upgrade our old water system! Treated water from multiple systems can always be co-mingled. And we just might need numerous sources of treated water to get through the next few years. Answers to the questions above will help us more fully understand the severity of what we may be facing, and how to mitigate it.

The good news is by the end of 2023 we will have new council members. Let's hope we elect a few that respect private property rights, and will spend our money with more care and wisdom. Maybe some of them will have innovative ideas that have eluded the current City leadership. We 277 incredible souls deserve all that, don't we? Even if we have a water district that tells us it is illegal to use its water to grow our fruits and vegetables. Now, there is a gem for John Walker to so eloquently enforce, a water district makes it illegal to water the food we eat!!


Eyes open, no fear, be safe . . . . stay cool.

[upoladeb]

thank you for your opinions.At least you are trying to communicate

[upoladeb]

I may not agree with everything you write but it is good to see some one on here that is real