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SPNRD board sees ground water model analysis review

At its monthly meeting, the South Platte Natural Resources District board of directors received an analysis review of the Western Water Use Management Model, commissioned to aid in determining the effects of actions on aquifers within the District.

The review was the second seen by the directors, who saw initial modeling results at a special meeting at the end of April. At that time, board members asked hydrogeologist Thad Kuntz, who developed the model, to run more specific information than that initially presented.

At the May board meeting Kuntz’s aquifer life analysis was based in response to the board’s request, focusing on information gained within the last five years of the model. Kuntz presented a series of modeling maps showing the projected ground water levels, out to 500 years, using irrigator’s actual ground water use from 2009 to 2013, use of 14 acre-inches of water annually, and use of 16.5 acre-inches annually.

The WWUMM takes into account pieces of historical information as it projects ground water effects in varying situations. Those include rainfall, crop water needs and hundreds of other pieces of information. It is the latest tool the Directors have to help determine how best to protect ground water for current and future uses by irrigators, municipalities and others depending on the District’s ground water.

The model’s perameters can be changed to see how different variables affect local aquifers. The current focus is on irrigation, which as the area’s largest ground water user, can have the biggest effect. In the coming months the directors and local stakeholders will be taking a look at the District’s irrigation allocations, which must be established for the next three year allocation period prior to the 2016 irrigation season.

The board also approved a request by the city of Sidney to move 87.4 certified irrigated acres to the District’s water bank to be used as future offsets for the city. The move was first suggested as a proactive step as the city begins development of an industrial park north of 21st Century Equipment on the east edge of town.

Under normal circumstances irrigated acres, and associated ground water use, retired by urban development are banked by the District as they are developed. By taking these steps now, it reduces the need to work with multiple landowners over time, and also allows the banked acres to be specifically dedicated as an offset to Sidney’s growth.

In other business, the District ratified a request by the Citizen’s Monitoring Committee, which monitors operations at Clean Harbors Environmental Services, Inc., a hazardous waste incinerator site located south of Kimball. The Committee had requested the hiring of Southwest Environmental Engineering to provide services and assistance in its monitoring duties. The board ratified the hiring, as well as the contract with Southwest.

 

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