In recent years, thanks in large part to the leadership of the Kansas Legislature and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, the state has significantly increased its investment in addressing its most pressing water challenges. House Bill 2302 passed in 2023, increasing the state’s investments in water to close to $60 million per year, helping state agencies and its partners expand infrastructure assistance programs, clean up contaminated groundwater, and fixing high-hazard dams. You can learn more about how the state funds water using the Kansas Water Office’s interactive State Water Plan Fund tool.

This page showcases the state's investments in water, highlighting how your taxpayer dollars were invested to improve water quality and ensure a secure water supply for the future generations of Kansans. You can use the tool below to search for what grants and investments were made in your community and across the state to conserve water, fix leaky pipes, and protect our streams and lakes from invasive species. Below the tool you can also view some success stories for water investments in Kansas, highlighting the need for sustained funding to address our growing water challenges.

Below, you can view some success stories for water investments in Kansas, highlighting the need for sustained funding to address our growing water challenges.

Water Success Stories in Kansas

Recent funding increases for water have achieved the following successes in the past few years:

A collaborative conservation effort for the Quivira National Wildlife Refuge has restored 3,300 acre-feet of streamflow in 2025 while preventing water reductions for local communities. Decades of overuse in the Rattlesnake Creek Basin and drought had severely impaired Quivira’s senior water right. To balance agricultural needs and meet the needs of the senior right holder, stakeholders developed a five-year plan in 2024 to reduce groundwater pumping through temporary leasing, targeted water rights purchases, and a pilot project pumping water back into the stream. This investment supports long-term solutions while avoiding abrupt cuts that could devastate the region’s economy and communities.

Over 100 infrastructure and technical assistance grants have been awarded across Kansas, primarily benefiting communities with populations under 2,000. These funds, provided through the KDHE’s Small Town Infrastructure Program and the KWO’s HB 2302 programs, supported critical drinking water and wastewater improvements, engineering designs to address water supply risks, and loan repayments. Without these grants, many communities could not meet drinking water standards or secure their water supplies. For instance, a $300 thousand grant enabled Keats to begin constructing a much-needed wastewater lagoon, without which the town could have “disappeared,” according to its planning director. Demand for these programs far outpaced funding, with HB 2302 receiving over $230 million in requests within just six weeks.

The state has rehabilitated 18 high-priority dams, including 10 high-hazard ones. This included a project in Paola to stabilize the 2,200-foot-long Lake Miola dam, critical for public safety and commerce. There is a growing need to address over 500 at-risk dams statewide.