Giving water away

Dear Editor,

At the "Water for Food" global conference in Lincoln on May 1-4, experts from around the world predicted a challenging future for humanity. The world population, now at 7 billion, is growing exponentially. As populations grow, industrial, agricultural and domestic water demands escalate. The world's water supply, which is key to food production, is fixed. The two lines on the big chart are moving further apart every decade. Water will replace oil as the most critical natural resource issue in the years ahead. For mankind to survive, the world must produce more food with less water through better water management and improvements in irrigation technologies and efficiencies.

In Nebraska, our cup runneth over. We have the water, we have the farm land, and we have the best food producers on the planet. The world desperately needs what our farmers and ranchers produce. Unfortunately, Nebraska's water policy is holding us back from managing our vast surface and groundwater supplies in a manner required in these times. Consider these facts: on average, every year, 1 to 2 million acre feet of water flow into Nebraska. Incredibly, every year we let 8-10 million acre feet (more than three trillion gallons) of fresh water flow out of our state into the Missouri River, then into the Mississippi River, and finally into the Gulf of Mexico where it becomes useless saltwater -- now oily saltwater.

What a colossal waste. Making matters even worse is the fact that the huge flows leaving Nebraska are fueling the flood waters in the Mississippi River which is wreaking serious havoc in the Gulf States.

Everywhere south and west of Nebraska, water has a dollar value. For example, in Texas, T. Boone Pickens plans to pump water from the Ogallala Aquifer to cities such as El Paso, San Antonio and Dallas at a cost of $1,400, $1,000, and $800 per acre feet, respectively. In California, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California pays a whopping $1,204 per acre feet of water it receives from the San Diego County Water Authority.

Suppose we assign a modest $100 per acre foot of the 10 million acre feet of fresh water we allow to flow out of our state every year. We are giving $800 million to one billion dollars away a year that could be injected back into our economy. What a boon! Looking at it another way, irrigation in Nebraska uses about 8 million acre feet of water annually, which in turn adds about $5 billion to our economy. If we held on to that 8 million acre feet of water we now waste and allow irrigated acres to double, our economy would receive a $5 billion boost.

There should be no illusions why Ted Turner and the Mormon Church own a combined half-million acres of the Nebraska sandhills. It is not about buffalo, but rather the gold mine of clean groundwater that the acres overlie, a potential mega-bonanza of new wealth for the wealthy.

The bottom line is that we need to build more storage impoundments to bank our water. Our neighbor to the south seems to get the big picture. Kansas has 12 impoundments in the eastern half of their state, all of which are for flood control and recreation. By comparison, Nebraska has none. Who would benefit from a couple or three strategically located reservoirs? Recreation, municipalities, endangered and threatened species, and irrigation. Omaha and Lincoln's domestic well fields would be protected. Critical habitat in the Central Platte would be better sustained and enhanced with timed water releases from an upstream dam when pulse flows are needed.

Our underground aquifers would be substantially recharged. It is really no exaggeration to say that with additional impoundments, Nebraska could actually be the only place in the world that would be virtually drought-proof.

Nebraska's water policy for the 21st Century must be keyed to retaining and banking the massive fresh water supply we now allow to leave our state. Additional water impoundments would greatly enhance our economic stability, productivity, safety, recreation, species habitat and the overall quality of life.

The governor needs to form a group of experts and concerned, knowledgeable parties who can begin the process of developing a long range impoundment plan that will benefit the entire state and, yes, the hungry world we help feed.

Don Adams

Executive Director

Nebraskans First