(KNZA)--A Friday morning meeting at the Klinefelter Barn in rural Hiawatha will focus on a controversial water plan. 

The public hearing, headed by the Kansas Water Office, is open to residents wishing to address the proposal to channel water, by way of canal and pipeline, to southwest Kansas. Part of the agency's 50-year water plan, the proposal would necessitate the construction of a 19,000 acre aqueduct near White Cloud. 

Doniphan County farmer Ken McCauley is opposed to the plan. “Part of the plan is to include the Missouri River aqueduct project that was looked at and studied in 1982 and they determined then that it wasn't feasible or even smart to even look at it anymore. Here we are looking at it again as the last resort to pump water uphill to the southwest area of Kansas so they can irrigate corn,” McCauley told MSC News. “I don't have any problem with irrigating corn, but they need to have the conservation aspect of this in mind instead of just pumping more water.” 

McCauley last month took his concerns to the Doniphan County Commission, telling them the plan will cost the county 19,000 acres of prime farm ground. “They're proposing a 17,000 acre lake that would flood all those acres, take them out of the tax base. Then, the aqueduct project itself going very close to Hiawatha, across Brown and Nemaha Counties. That would require 250 foot ownership for the aqueduct and then that would take 27,000 acres minimum out of land across the state to get to southwest Kansas.”    

McCauley says he hopes to see a good turnout at Friday's meeting, and hopes that the importance of what's being proposed is not lost on his fellow area residents. “As things go along there's a lot of apathy also that says 'well, this will never happen. Let's just let it go.' I guarantee you, if we don't stand up right now, we'll be confronted with this as a reality in the near future.” 

The meeting, at the Klinefelter Barn, will run from 10 until 12 Noon Friday, and is part of a series of state-wide meetings being held regarding the 50-year water plan.