Senator expects fireworks over two water bills

With funding tied up in the courts, most of the attention has been focused on the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources's three proposals for dealing with Kansas' claims on Republican River water.

State Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege plans to stir two more proposals into the mix. Some see the effects as about the same as lobbing in a couple of hand grenades.

"This will be a fireworks bill, but I'm gona do it," Carlson said at the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District board meeting Monday.

The proposals the DNR has been presenting to Republican River NRDs are as follows:

* Option 1: decrease pumping allocations in all three districts to be used in average or dry years: 3.6 inches in the Lower, 4.8 in the Middle and 5.9 in the Upper. With this option, no other regulations would apply, except surface water would be curtailed if needed to ensure compliance in dry years.

* Option 2: allow groundwater users to keep pumping at the current allocation but in water short years, curtail surface water and ground water pumping in "rapid response" wells near the river.

* Option 3: the same as Option 2 but would affect a smaller number of wells.

Carlson's plan would instead tie water allocations to groundwater depletion -- a big issue in the Upper Republican NRD, where groundwater levels have dropped significantly since the advent of pump irrigation.

Under Carlson's bill, the standard would be an aquifer's pre-development saturated thickness.

When declines pass 10 percent, allocations and metered wells would be required if they weren't already in place. A depletion of more than 20 percent would trigger allocations of half the previous level, and allocations would be shut off altogether in the event of a 30 percent decline of the aquifer.

His bill would apply to all 23 natural resources districts in the state.

A second proposed bill addresses the thorny issue of "correlative rights," the way groundwater and surface water are related. Under the current system, groundwater is managed by the NRDs, and surface water rights are enforced by the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, based on long-term first-in-time, first-in-right rules.

Republican River interests have been hoping to avoid a situation which pitts irrigators in one NRD against another -- not to mention local NRDs against the states of Nebraska and Kansas.

Even more important, however, is avoiding irrigation limits that are devastating to the economy of the entire Southwest Nebraska area.

But, ultimately, even if if does take some fireworks, a long-term solution to the problem of how to fairly allocate our most important natural resource has to be found.