Control best when it's in local hands

If only it would rain ... a lot of problems would be solved, or at least diminished around Southwest Nebraska and Northwest Kansas.

That's the unspoken, underlying truth behind many of the discussions and conflicts with which we are dealing.

Examples include the presentations at the annual water conference Wednesday in mcCook.

Irrigators are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place as the state deals with the Republican River Compact settlement and we all deal with the continuing drought.

Nebraska faces a 2007 deadline to be in complance with the interstate agreement, but compliance will be calculated using recent water use figures. Because the weather has been so dry, Nebraska used more than its share in 2003, and likely will continue to do so.

The settlement takes into account, the use of groundwater, which is determined to deplete stream flow -- meaning pumping restrictions of 15 inches of water or less per acre prer year.

Therein lies the rub.

"When the basin's the driest, that's when we need the water the most," said Dan Smith, executive director of the Middle Republican Natural Resources district.

It will be the four NRDs that follow the Republican River that will work to keep groundwater users from pumping too much water.

The NRDs don't have the authority to shut down legally-operating wells, Smith said Wednesday, but there are penalties for overuse, and they do have power to enforce their regulations.

All of this is a far cry from what the NRDs were about when they were first formed back in the early 1970s. In 1972, 24 NRDs were created by the Legislature to eliminate about 150 duplicated special-purpose conservation districts. The main point back then, was to build flood control structures to prevent erosion and keep runoff water on croplands.

Today, as the water conference indicated, the emphasis has shifted to groundwater management.

No one likes regulations, but when resources like water are short, there is no other choice.

And, with locally-elected boards of directors, NRDs are much preferable to Lincoln-based appointed bureaucrats.

Yes, a few wetter than normal years would make many of these problems go away. Intil then, however, locally elected representatives creating the best local solutions are the best answer we have.