Senator: No clear path on water problem

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Water continues to be a complicated issue for both Nebraska irrigators and legislators. Sen. Mark Christensen said this morning that he was receiving a lot of push-back pertaining to his priority bill, LB 522, and he welcomed local input on to how to proceed.

Sen. Christensen explained during his weekly McCook Area Chamber of Commerce legislative conference call that members of the Natural Resources Committee had expressed to him the bill would not advance as it was written, largely because of the compensation it sought. The bill would require the Department of Natural Resources to compensate surface water irrigators following the implementation of regulations prohibiting their stream flow for compact compliance. The compensation is intended to prevent the pitting of ground water and surface water users against each other, with what Sen. Christensen describes as fair treatment.

"If we go to treating everyone fairly, it will be harder on the local economy. Is that the approach?" asked Sen. Christensen, adding that he could kill the bill and hope something positive comes out of it. Sen. Christensen said it was going to be difficult to get legislators to have what he believed was a very important discussion, pertaining to the fair treatment of irrigators, if he allowed the payment language to stay in the bill.

Sen. Christensen said he had several options available to him but was uncertain how to phrase the debate. One option included changing the language of the bill, to offer the same percentage to surface and groundwater irrigators in proportion to their expected delivery. He was also considering killing the bill, but had concerns that if he announced that approach the discussion on how to resolve the issue would not happen.

"If I don't announce I plan to kill the bill, the discussion won't happen either, because the focus will be on fighting the funding requirements of the bill," said Sen. Christensen, reiterating that he wished he knew what the solution was.

Addressing the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources' recent order to release all water stored in Nebraska reservoirs since Jan. 1, 2013, Sen. Christensen said the order would result in approximately 18,500 acre ft. of water released from Southwest Nebraska reservoirs, according to data he had received.

Sen. Christensen said the release was expected to be completed by Friday with the exception of Harlen County Reservoir, which was not yet ordered to release their 7500 acre feet of water and a debate would follow pertaining to that.

Release amounts, in acre feet, are broken down as follows: