*Menu
Search
Submit
McCook Gazette

Upper NRD buys more land

Friday, April 12, 2013

IMPERIAL, Nebraska -- The Upper Republican Natural Resources District, based in Imperial, Nebraska, has purchased additional irrigated farmland to offset additional pumping on its Rock Creek augmentation project.

The Imperial Republican reports that URNRD officials knew they would need to retire more irrigated acres after increasing the number of wells on the Rock Creek project, and the board has now purchased 1,900 acres from Wilder Farms in southwest Dundy County for $8.25 million.

The Wilder land is located about two miles north of the Rock Creek project.

The Republican newspaper indicates that irrigation on the Wilder land will be permanently retired and will offset the additional pumping gained by adding two new wells to the Rock Creek project, which has a total now of 10 augmentation wells and a total pumping capacity increased from 15,000 acre-feet annually to 20,000 acre-feet per year.

URNRD officials felt the additional pumping capacity gained from two new wells could help the district stay in compliance with the 1943 Kansas-Nebraska Republican River Compact, especially with delays in the joint-NRD Lincoln County farm augmentation project.

Imperial Republican publisher Russ Pankonin reports that the URNRD board approved action to issue up to $12 million in bonds to pay for the Wilder land and to refinance a balance on the Rock Creek project.

Comments
View 2 comments
Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. Please note that those who post comments on this website may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.

  • Reducing the pumping in the UPNRD is really the only real way to provide the water needed to meet the compact and save the aquifer. Taking water from one part of the aquifer is still taking water. Surface users are already dry. Lakes are drying up, as are rivers and streams. Water wells for cattle and human use are needing to be drilled deeper. We need to look what happened in Texas when they over pumped. Now they are dry.

    -- Posted by dennis on Fri, Apr 12, 2013, at 2:45 PM

  • A person would seriously need medication if they were considering buying those bonds. Its nice to see the upper planning to pump another 20 1/2 inches in 2013. Maybe they can outdo last years record of 717,000 acre feet of water pumped on 415,000 acres. I'm sure that once all of the augmentation wells go dry they will still pay back the bonds.

    -- Posted by shallal on Fri, Apr 12, 2013, at 9:12 PM
Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: