Kansas Legislative News - Kansas Chapter of Sierra Club

KLN No. 5
March 11, 2006
Charles M. Benjamin,
P.O. Box 1642, Lawrence, KS 66044
(785) 841-5902; 841-5922 fax; chasbenjamin@sbcglobal.net

S.B. 361, introduced by Sunflower Rural Electric and opposed by Sierra Club, would make the Kansas Court of Appeals the court of original jurisdiction to hear any judicial appeal of an air pollution control permit, a variance to such permits, or renewal of such permits issued by KDHE. This legislation would eliminate the state district court in the judicial appeals process. Under current law any pollution control permit issued by KDHE, related to water, landfill, and air pollution, must first be reviewed by the district court before being appealed to the Court of Appeals.

SB 361 was introduced by Sunflower Electric Power Corp. that has plans to expand its current 360 MW coal generating plant, called Holcomb I, by an additional 1800 MW - making it one of the largest coal fired power plant complexes in the U.S. Sunflower introduced this legislation in order to "expedite" the air pollution control permits for their new coal plants. However, this expedited judicial review process would apply to all industrial facilities in Kansas that are required to obtain air pollution control permits - including new coal fired electric generators planned by other major utilities in Kansas. Sunflower's existing and proposed new coal plants would be near the town of Holcomb, just west of Garden City, which is in the state senate district of Stephen Morris who is President of the Kansas Senate. Therefore, SB 361 was passed by the full Senate on 2/23 on a vote of 31 to 9.

SB 361 now moves on to the House Judiciary Committee for a hearing on 3/13 where I, along with others, will testify in opposition. The members of the House Judiciary Committee and their office telephone numbers (785-296-XXXX) are: Mike O'Neal (7679), Lance Kinzer (7663), Pat Colloton (7631), Becky Hutchins (7698), Kasha Kelly (7644), Mike Kiegerl (7686), Ward Loyd (7655), Ty Masterson (1769), Thomas Owens (7685), Mary Pilcher-Cook (7667), Charles Roth (7696), Jason Watkins (1769), Janice Pauls (7657), Marti Crow (7673), Paul Davis (7642), Delia Garcia (6838), Michael Peterson (7122), and Jim Ward (7675). If any of these legislators are your state representative please call and leave them a message to VOTE NO on SB 361.

H.B. 2817 would prohibit the acquisition of land by the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks (KDWP) unless the land meets statutory requirements for noxious weeds, the KDWP Secretary has agreed to pay money in lieu of property taxes for land which is exempt from such taxes, and the Secretary has developed a management plan for the property, including five year estimates for annual operating and capital improvement expenditures and staffing requirements. In addition, any acquisition of tracts of land greater than 480 acres would require legislative approval. An acquisition of land greater than 480 acres would also be subject to a protest petition signed by at least 5% of the voters in the city or county where the majority of the land is located. If there were sufficient signatures then a majority of the voters would have to approve the acquisition. In addition, H.B. 2817 would prohibit the Secretary of KDWP from disposing of any land without first offering to donate or sell the land to the board of county commissioners of the county where the land is located. If the county commissioners chose not to take the land it must be offered for sale to the general public at an auction advertised in a county newspaper.

A hearing on H.B. 2817 was held before the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget Committee on 3/9. Testifying in favor of H.B. 2817 was the Kansas Farm Bureau and the Board of Riley County Commissioners. The Riley County Commission is upset over the sale of the historic "Rocky Ford" fishing area by KDWP to a private individual who has since fenced off the fishing area. The Rile County Commission and others are very upset about these actions and what they consider to have been insufficient public notice by KDWP about the sale.

Testifying in opposition was Mike Hayden, KDWP Secretary, and me, on behalf of the Sierra Club. We pointed out that the requirements for acquisition of property would greatly curtail the ability of KDWP to make the best transactions possible for land. Also, without control over who purchases land, undesirable development could occur; and private estate planning for those wishing to donate land to KDWP would be curtailed. As for disposal of property I suggested to the Committee that they adopt the language of proposed Substitute for S.B. 483 offered by Senator Taddiken to the Senate Ways and Means Committee (see the description below). The Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget Committee has not yet taken action on H.B. 2817 on 3/15. The state representatives on this committee and their phone numbers (785-296-XXXX) are: Sharon Schwartz (7683), Joann Freeborn (7645), Carl Holmes (7670), Larry Powell (7694), Tom Sloan (7677), Vaughn Flora (7647), and Jerry Williams (7690). If any of these are your state representative contact them and ask them to amend H.B. 2817 with language similar to proposed Substitute for S.B. 483 described below.

S.B. 483 is the Senate version of H.B. 2817. A hearing on S.B. 483 was held in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on 2/17 with Kansas Farm Bureau testifying in favor and KDWP Secretary Hayden and myself, representing Sierra Club, testifying against - with arguments identical to those above on H.B. 2817. On 3/7 Senator Taddiken, whose district includes the Rocky Ford fishing area, offered a proposed Substitute for S.B. 483 that eliminates all the language regarding acquisition of land by KDWP but requires KDWP, when disposing of land, to post a written notice on the land that KDWP proposes to dispose of, publish a notice of the sale in a newspaper of general circulation in the county that the land is located in, and publish a notice in the Kansas Register of intent to sell. This proposed Substitute for S.B. 483 is supported by KDWP and Sierra Club. The Senate Ways and Means Committee took no action on Senator Taddiken's proposed Substitute for S.B. 483 mainly because they were trying to figure out if similar provisions should apply to land disposed of by other state agencies such as the Kansas Department of Transportation.

From: Charles Benjamin,
P.O. Box 1642,
Lawrence, Kansas 66044-8642