MRNRD uses variety of tools to manage groundwater usage

Thursday, February 28, 2019
Middle Republican Natural Resource District Manager Jack Russell met with McCook Rotary Tuesday and updated members on irrigation issues in the district.
Shary Skiles/McCook Gazette

McCOOK, Neb. — While most people associate the NRD’s with managing ground water usage, Jack Russell, manager of the Middle Republican Natural Resource District, told members of McCook Rotary that the district accomplishes that function in a variety of ways.

For example, it applies for and receives water sustainability grants. The grants provide funding for installing moisture probes in the field and, using telemetry, the producer receives data on their computer or mobile device that shows them exactly what they are irrigating and how much rain-water soaks into the soil. Russell said that using this technology, they can help irrigators reduce usage by up to two-inches per year.

It also has a tree program available to landowners to provide windbreaks, wildlife habitat, and for conservation measures.

The MRNRD will soon be moving into a new office space in Curtis, which Russell anticipates will save the NRD money in the long run because of increased energy efficiency. The district covers Frontier, Hayes, Hitchcock, Red Willow, and southern Lincoln counties. Russell told the gathering that the MRNRD is governed by a 13-member board of directors, with two members elected from six sub-districts and one at-large.

“I have a board split between surface and groundwater users,” Russell said, “so they don’t always agree on a lot of stuff. I would much rather have that in the discussion, than a board that always agrees. I’m real comfortable that when the Middle Republican makes a decision, they have looked at all the aspects.”

The work of the MRNRD is driven by the Republican River Compact with Kansas and Colorado. Russell reported that the Middle is in pretty good shape, as far as compliance to the compact goes. “We believe that we can manage our way into meeting compact compliance each year. We don’t think we have to retire acres or shut irrigation down. That’s an economic driver and we want to keep that.”

Russell explained that in the MRNRD, irrigators are allowed 12 inches of irrigation per year, working on a 5-year allocation. They can carry over 12 inches per year. The MRNRD is just starting its second year of the 5-year allocation. “Most of our irrigators use way under their allocation,” Russell said. He explained that the NRD sometimes gets pressure from the state to lower allocation, but the NRD argues that irrigators are voluntarily under-using their allocation, so don’t mess with them.

If irrigators overuse their allocation, MRNRD can issue a cease-and-desist order to stop them from irrigating. “We’ve never had to cease-and-desist and stop anyone because of over allocation”, Russell said. “We have had to cease-and-desist irrigators for not using meters.”

One way that the Republican River Natural Resource Districts (which include the Upper, Middle, and Lower) have created an “insurance policy” for meeting compact requirements during a drought was through augmentation. Commonly known as N-CORPE (Nebraska Cooperative Republican Platte Enhancement project), four NRD’s purchased 19,500 acres in Lincoln County that straddles the Platte and Republican River Basins. They retired about 16,000 acres of irrigated land and planted it back to native grassland. 30 groundwater wells were installed to pipe the water into the Republican and Platte Rivers when needed to meet river flow obligations.

Russell told Rotary members that for the last two years, they haven’t had to pump any water from the N-CORPE wells. “The goal of the Middle Republican is to not have to pump N-CORPE. We would rather manage our way out of this.” Russell went on to explain that N-CORPE now also has a 12-inch annual allocation, but it is on a 10-year plan rather than 5-years, giving them more flexibility during prolonged droughts to use the N-CORPE “insurance policy” to meet obligations.

“It’s been successful,” Russell said of N-CORPE, “but at a $120 to $130 million investment, it’s been costly.” The MRND assesses a $10 per acre occupation tax on irrigated acres to help pay for the bond payment on the project, $2 million per year for the next 20 years. “It keeps us irrigating, so it’s a trade off.”

More information about the Middle Republican Natural Resource District is available at www.mrnrd.org.

MRNRD by the numbers:

2.459 million acres

300 thousand irrigated acres (12.5 percent of the land base)

575 miles of rivers and streams

21 thousand people

34 watershed dams, including Kelley Creek in McCook

3000 wells

2600 meters

13-member board of directors

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