PLATTE LINES A column of current items of interest from the South Platte NRD

In the last column, we introduced a general overview of the allocation system used by the NRD as one of the tools used to maintain adequate ground water supplies. As the District moves forward to set allocations for the irrigation years 2016-2018, we want to share how the process works and what we’re trying to accomplish.

In 2004, the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources designated the entire South Platte NRD as full appropriated, or using as much ground water as there was ground water recharge. Later that same year, the South Platte River Basin, including Lodgepole Creek was declared overappropriated, or using more ground water than available recharge.

Under requirements of the Nebraska Ground Water Management and Protection Act, the state’s natural resources districts with areas designated as fully appropriated or overappropriated are required to work with NDNR to develop integrated management plans to manage the state’s ground water and surface water resources. The District’s Integrated Management Plan was jointly developed by the District, stakeholders and NDNR and went into effect in 2008 for fully appropriated areas, and in 2009 for overappropriated areas.

The District’s Ground Water Management Area Rules and Regulations and the IMP are the primary guides we follow in management of the District’s water resources. To meet our responsibilities we need to provide the best ground water management possible while still assuring for as much of a solid future as possible.

As stated in the IMP, its goal is: to work together for the greater good of all the citizens of the South Platte Natural Resources District to cooperatively develop and implement a local Integrated Surface Water/Ground Water Plan that has an acceptable degree of certainty of:

• maintaining a sufficient water supply for use by present and future generations,

• maintaining and protecting the region’s agricultural economy and the viability of cities and villages and

• promoting the growth of economic activities while seeking to avoid adverse impacts on the environment.

State statute requires that the impact of stream flow depletions to surface water appropriations and water wells constructed in aquifers dependent on streamflow due to water use initiated after July 1, 1997, be addressed within 10 years of the adoption of an integrated management plan and requires that the overappropriated areas be returned to fully appropriated in an incremental manner.

So how do we accomplish this? Primarily, by using the best science we have available to make solid, informed management decisions. We then follow up to determine how management actions may affect the goal’s provisions. These actions are taken in a manner which will continue to provide viable ground water resources for all those within the District – from crop needs, to domestic and stock wells, to industrial uses, and urban areas.

To make the reductions necessary, the District initiated the allocation system starting in 2007. We are now preparing for the third allocation period, which begins in the 2016 growing season.

As we review the information we will use every resource at our disposal in an attempt to evaluate management options. First of those and the most long-standing are actual ground water level measurements from nearly 200 wells across the District. Those will be coupled with analysis by the newly implemented Western Water Use Ground Water Model, which combines crop types, rainfall information, land use data sets, allocation scenarios and many other factors to try to determine as best we can how effective management actions might be.

Another key component in our review will be input from Ground Water Management Advisory Committees and public input. Over the course of the next several weeks, we’ll host public meetings where the committees and members of the general public will have a chance to see the same information we look at in making decisions.

These committees have been a valuable source of review over the years and provide an added perspective on the effects of management actions across the District. The committees are made up of every segment of water users – including irrigators, industrial interests, municipal representatives, environmental concerns such as Nebraska Game and Parks, and others.

Time has shown these ground water users to be responsible, willing partners who step up with diligent and pragmatic discussion and suggestions. They, like your board members, realize the actions we take will likely touch each of the District’s residents, which number more than 15,700.

When all the discussion is finished, we’ll strive to fulfill the NRD motto: Protecting Lives, Protecting Property, Protecting the Future.

Rod L. Horn is the general manager of the South Platte Natural Resources District, based in Sidney.