SPNRD receives grant from Nebraska Environmental Trust

The South Platte Natural Resources District announced that it will receive $200,000 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust for the “Hydrogeology of Western Nebraska” project. The Trust Board announced funding for the project at its meeting on April 7 in Lincoln.

The project is one of the 118 projects receiving $18,799,900 in grant awards from the Nebraska Environmental Trust this year. Of these, 69 were new applications and 49 are carry-over projects.

The project digitally scans and processes existing oil and gas well geophysical logs to gather information about the aquifer. There are 20,814 oil and gas wells in Nebraska and we estimate that 2,300 wells have geologic and hydrogeologic data that is readily available to provide for a greater understanding of the aquifer configuration within the project area, especially in fully and overappropriated designated areas.

This is approximately 10% of total oil and gas wells within Nebraska and represents a large amount of available data which when interpreted will greatly enhance the applicants’ and NET’s investment in the current geologic and hydrogeologic interpretation for use in ground water and surface water management. This scope of work will provide a significant amount of data that will benefit the regional modeling efforts of the Western Water Use Management Model and the COHYST model.

Confidence in these models will be greatly enhanced by this additional geologic and hydrogeologic information contained in the oil and gas geophysical log data. The project method will analyze the information contained in the scanned oil and gas geophysical logs which will improve the current geologic and hydrogeologic interpretation that is based on available data collected and interpreted by project sponsors during previously completed work on the High Plains Aquifer system in the area.

The total project cost is $815,000.

The applicants are requesting $480,000 or 59 percent of the total cost from NET to pay for data interpretation. The project sponsors and their partners, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Conservation and Survey Division (UNL CSD) and the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (NOGCC), will provide cash and in-kind services totaling $335,000 or 41% percent of the total cost.

The contribution by the partners will include the scanning of oil and gas logs, data interpretation, and production of maps.

Once the logs are scanned, Adaptive Resources, Inc. of Scottsbluff, Neb., will complete the processing and make the information readily available to be incorporated into the data bases of Western Water Use Management Model and the COHYST model.

The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Environmental Trust in 1992. Using revenue from the Nebraska Lottery, the Trust has provided over $250 million in grants to more than 1,900 projects across the state. Anyone – citizens, organizations, communities, farmers and businesses – can apply for funding to protect habitat, improve water quality and establish recycling programs in Nebraska. The Nebraska Environmental Trust works to preserve, protect and restore our natural resources for future generations.

For more information please contact the South Platte Natural Resources District at (308) 254-2377 or visit our website at spnrd.org.