The future of the Republican River

When the Republican River settlement was reached in 2003, irrigators and government officials faced the tremendous challenge of sending millions of additional gallons of water downstream to avoid paying millions of dollars in fines. Nearly three years later, we have made a lot of progress at the federal level to assist irrigators and the State of Nebraska in complying with the rules of the compact, and I am proud of the cooperative efforts of Nebraskans in working to resolve this problem. 

One of the most significant accomplishments at the federal level was establishing the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) in the Platte and Republican River Basins. Last year, I facilitated discussions to establish a CREP program in Nebraska, which sought to put 100,000 acres of irrigated cropland into conservation with the goal of reducing irrigation by 125,000 acre-feet every year.   

Originally, the Nebraska program allocated 50,000 acres to the Platte River and 50,000 acres to the Republican River. Recently, restrictions on the Platte River acreage have been lifted, allowing more CREP land to be enrolled in the Republican River Basin, potentially resulting in additional water savings in the Republican Basin. While the effects will take some time to be fully realized, CREP, along with other conservation programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), will be a critical step in complying with our compact obligations. The amount of water savings from CREP and EQIP will vary depending on precipitation and groundwater levels, but past modeling done by the Department of Natural Resources indicates that these two programs could keep 20,000 acre-feet of water in the Republican River by the third year of the program, and 25,000 by the fourth year.

In January, I met with Congressman Jerry Moran, Nebraska Attorney General Bruning and Kansas Attorney General Kline to discuss what more could be done to help put more water in the Republican River, and we discussed two important solutions that could help resolve water shortages in the Republican River in future years. 

First, water-wasting noxious weeds are a problem throughout the Republican River Basin. For example, tamarisk or salt cedar, plants are found throughout the basin, and each plant can consume up to 200 gallons of water a day. I have worked with farmers, ranchers and organizations who are applying for grants through the Natural Resources Conservation Service that will fund weed control efforts, and I continue to work in Congress to find additional sources of funding to control the noxious weed problem. Removing these noxious weeds could result in substantial water savings to the river.

Second, while we continue to hope for more precipitation, ongoing drought conditions have demonstrated that our water management strategy on the Republican River needs to be designed to cope with this kind of situation. In February I introduced a bill with Rep. Moran to authorize a federal study of reliability, storage and management issues in the Republican River Basin. This study will be of critical importance in the future as we seek to better manage the river's resources in wet and dry years, and I am confident that this bill will be considered soon.

While an end to the drought would make complying with the Republican River Compact much easier, I am optimistic that the steps we are taking at the federal and state level will help Nebraska meet its obligations under the compact this year. However, it is important that we begin to look beyond short term fixes. While it is still unclear what additional measures will be needed to reach a permanent solution to the water problems in the Republican River, the steps being taken today will provide a foundation for resolving these problems in the future.