Editorial

Just good business for Bostwick farmers

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Farmers who don't have water available from ditches may pump it out of the ground, warns Sen. Chris Beutler of Lincoln.

Well, duh.

The senator, of course, was referring to the sale of water from the Bostwick Irrigation District to the State of Nebraska to send down the Republican River to Kansas.

It is a big deal, of course, with taxpayers paying $2.5 million, or about $125 per qualified acre, to farmers who are giving up surface water this year. And, Beutler is right; farmers shouldn't expect the same deal next year.

But the stakes are higher, with Nebraska facing many millions of dollars in fines if we don't get our water usage under control.

He's also right, that the Bostwick deal "includes nothing that would prevent these irrigators from using their entire groundwater allocation to make up for their lost surface water," as Beutler wrote to Attorney General John Bruning.

"The irrigators would get paid for their surface water, proceed to irrigate with groundwater, and then earn as much money as they would have using surface water in whole or in part," he wrote.

But as even Beutler notes, the irrigators are under groundwater allocations that prevent them from running pumps as much as they want.

And, as Mike Clements, manager of the Lower Republican NRD notes, a lot of the wells are low capacity and were designed only to supplement surface water.

Assistant Attorney General Dave Cookson also counters that the state is paying a fair market price for the water, and if the state didn't buy it, Bostwick would keep it in the reservoir.

"Either way, the folks who also have wells would not have seen a change in their allocation from the NRD," Cookson said.

Irrigators who take the Bostwick deal, then do what they can to make as much money as possible are only following good business practices.

What else should they be expected to do?

It's up to regulators and the Legislature to see that they are treated fairly while Nebraska struggles to comply with the Republican River Compact settlement.

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