Letter to the Editor

How does the NRD, state water plan affect groundwater?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

In the last article we talked about the impacts to surface water from the dry year controls imposed by the 2010 revisions to the Integrated Management Plans (IMPs). This part will outline the controls and actions related to ground water users.

When the original plans of 2004 were revised in 2007, compliance standards were established for the NRDs. These standards set a 20 percent reduction from the average uses of 1998 through 2002. Additionally, a standard was established that set percentage depletions for each of the NRDs in the basin. We are required to stay within these percentages over the long term and these standards provide the state with the assurance that compact compliance will be maintained.

Short-term needs in a dry year were addressed in 2007 but were not able to be implemented because of the challenges to our taxing authority. In 2009 this problem was addressed in arbitration and it was determined that Nebraska needed to do more.

The curtailment of surface water use and the shutdown of use in about 34,000 acres of ground water was the solution chosen to be included in the revised IMPs. It is acknowledged in those revisions that this restriction on use can be avoided with additional emphasis on management actions by the NRDs. Management actions to avoid the restriction include ground and surface water leases, ground and surface water purchases, augmentation of stream flow and riparian management. Additionally, NRDs can establish different allocations for these dry years in an effort to ensure that all irrigators are being treated equally. Our management actions can also prevent the curtailment of surface water in those dry years.

In the summer of 2010, both the Upper Republican NRD and the Middle Republican NRD approved IMPs with the Department of Natural Resources that included these provisions. Yes, they include curtailment of both surface water and ground water, but they also address the actions that can be taken to prevent that curtailment. An IMP is a just a plan. NRDs implement an IMP by adopting rules and regulations for a Ground Water Management Area. We are currently working on these rules. They will include allocation rates and adjustments to those allocations that will keep Nebraska in compliance with the compact and treat all irrigators equally while maintaining the economic viability of the producers and communities in the basin.

We all need to expect some changes when dry years occur. No one should expect harsher or preferred treatment. We can have a system were some uses are better or more preferred than others. Surface water controls were established in the late 1800s, groundwater controls came along much later and were developed using state statutes and court case law. Ground water calculations were not included in the compact until more than 50 years after it was created. Had ground water and surface water developed concurrently there would be less of each. We work within the system that we have and NRDs are charged with looking at the economic and social impacts of our controls. With the new revisions to the IMPs and the new rules we are developing, we intend to minimize the impacts to all users.

-- Dan Smith is manager of the Middle Republican Natural Resources District.

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