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KINSLEY, Kan. (AP) — In the late 1980s, drought left the wells that supply water to the city of Hays and Russell in western Kansas precariously low. The near-catastrophe sent city leaders on the hunt for more water.
“We were just trying to survive from one year to the next,” former Hays mayor and city councilman Eber Phelps said.
The cities researched their options, including looking into purchasing water from several nearby reservoirs.
But ultimately in 1995, they bought the R9 Ranch in Edwards County about 70 miles south of Hays.
It looked like foresight. The two cities had locked in water rights that would allow them to grow in a relatively parched part of the world. It may yet prove to be just that — if years of fighting with the farming neighbors of the R9 end in a win.
Standing atop one of the sandy hills on the
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