Kickapoo leader says dry conditions may force casino’s closure

Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

John Thomas, vice president of the Kickapoo Tribal Council, said it was the second time in six months that low stream flows on the Delaware River have threatened to shut down activities on the northeast Kansas reservation.

"If we don't get a 3-inch rain the next two or three weeks, we're going to have to shut everything down - and that includes the casino," Thomas said.

In May, the Delaware's flow dropped to 12 cubic feet per second. Thomas said Tuesday that flows were 1.4 cubic feet per second.

"That's barely any water at all," said Clark Duffy, assistant director at the Kansas Water Office. "And this is a river that usually doesn't have much flow in the fall, so, at this rate, it's likely to dry up pretty quick."

The Delaware, a tributary of the Kansas River, provides water for 850 homes and businesses on the reservation and to the casino.

Dan Stromer, general manager of Golden Eagle Casino, admitted the deck looked stacked against the tribe.

"The situation is back to a critical point," Stromer said. "I don't want to say anything that'll create a panic because we are open and there are some things we can do, like rationing and bringing in bottled water. But it's true, we're like farmers: At some point, we're going to have to have some rain to keep this crop going."

Golden Eagle employs about 350 people with about 1,500 to 2,000 customers a day.

Thomas said a reservoir the Delaware flows into was reduced to "puddles" by summer heat. The reservation now gets its water from a makeshift pipeline between its water treatment plant and a three-acre pond about a quarter-mile away.

"I don't know what we're going to do if we don't get any rain and it freezes this winter," Thomas said.

According to weather records, the area's average annual rainfall is 33.3 inches. Since October 1999, the reservation has recorded only 21.49 inches of precipitation.

Efforts by the tribe, the Kansas Geological Survey and the state's congressional delegation to find alternative water sources have proved elusive.

Mark Kelly, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., said the congressman made an effort to find $3.5 million to construct a dam on the reservation. However, Kelly said, the project died when the tribe was unable to come up with $1 million for construction.

Thomas said the money was an offer from an individual, not the tribe.

"That was just talk," Thomas said. "It was never anything official. And even if it was, that dam would take years to build."

Rex Buchanan, a survey spokesman, said the only practical alternative water sources found this summer would have provided only enough water for a single household.