Duties of office

The Kansas water office shall: (a) Collect and compile information pertaining to climate, water and soil as related to the usage of water for agricultural, industrial and municipal purposes and the availability of water supplies in the several watersheds of the state, and, in so doing, the office shall collect and compile the information obtainable from other agencies, instrumentalities of the state, political subdivisions of the state and the federal government. (b) Develop a state plan of water resources management, conservation and development for water planning areas as determined by the office, and cooperate with any agency or instrumentality of the state or federal government now or hereafter engaged in the development of plans or having developed plans affecting any such area of the state. (c) Develop and maintain guidelines for water conservation plans and practices. Such guidelines shall: (1) Not prejudicially or unreasonably affect the public interest; (2) be technologically and economically feasible for each water user to implement; (3) be designed to curtail the waste of water; (4) consider the use of other water if the use of freshwater is not necessary; (5) not require curtailment in water use which will not benefit other water users or the public interest; (6) not result in the unreasonable deterioration of the quality of the waters of the state; (7) consider the reasonable needs of the water user at the time; (8) not conflict with the provisions of the Kansas water appropriation act and the state water planning act; (9) be limited to practices of water use efficiency except for drought contingency plans for municipal users; and (10) take into consideration drought contingency plans for municipal and industrial users. When developing such guidelines, the Kansas water office shall consider existing guidelines of groundwater management districts and the cost to benefit ratio effect of any plan. (d) The Kansas water office, with the approval of the Kansas water authority, shall establish guidelines as to when conditions indicative of drought exist. When the Kansas water office determines that such conditions exist in an area, it shall so advise the governor and shall recommend the assembling of the governor's drought response team.