In 2012, the brothers decided to file to protect their right from impairment again, but this time in Haskell County District Court. “Rather than being a positive catalyst for change in the effort to extend the useful life of the aquifer as a whole, we have been perceived as selfishly damaging our neighbors for our own gain.” 3,” the Garetsons wrote in their withdrawal letter. “Our goal has been to bring attention to the urgent state of decline of the Ogallala Aquifer in GMD No. The family dropped the case in 2007 after backlash from the community. "It was a combination of wanting to secure the opportunity for our farm's future generation, as well as the opportunity to secure water for all generations," Jay Garetson said. However, knowing that if nothing changes there might not be enough water for future generations, he and his family filed an impairment claim in 2005 with the Kansas Division of Water Resources regarding his family’s oldest water right. The Garetsons have their own junior rights. If they did, the state wouldn't approve them. Moreover, wells drilled after 1945 couldn't impair - in any way - a senior water right. Thus, if a senior right is impaired, then the owner of the junior right could be ordered to reduce irrigation from their well or be shut off completely. The longtime law gives senior water rights priority over junior rights. It put the entire state - whether surface water or groundwater - under the first-in-time water doctrine. In 1945, the Kansas Legislature approved the Water Appropriation Act, which is still the foundation of the state's water law. It's a law that started in the late 1800s during the ditch irrigation days in western Kansas to protect users, said Burke Griggs, a former assistant attorney general who now is an associate professor at Washburn School of Law and a water-law expert. With western water law, one rule is the cornerstone: First in time, first in right. However, said Jay Garetson, "the status quo is no longer an option." And the Garetsons have heard the negative comments from residents. Water can be a contentious topic, after all, especially in western Kansas.
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