BURLINGTON, Kan. (AP) State water officials are recommending a plan to dredge the John Redmond Reservoir in Coffey County, which has been filling with silt for decades.
Besides offering recreation, the 50-year-old reservoir on the Neosho River near Burlington supplies backup water to 14 communities in southeast Kansas. It also supplies water to two smaller lakes that feed cooling towers at the Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports the proposed dredging could become a model for managing other federal lakes in Kansas that also have silting problems. The Redmond reservoir has lost about 1,000 surface acres and nearly half its volume since it was completed in 1964.
Tracy Streeter, head of the Kansas Water Office, says a contract to dredge the lake is tentative until funding can be found.
