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Time for answers
Dear Editor,
The state DNR has proposed several options for the Integrated Management Plans for the Lower, Middle and Upper republican NRDs in an attempt to meet Settlement Compliance during water short years, when Harlan County Lake is below 119,000 acre feet.
Note that I said Settlement Compliance, as there is a huge difference in the area, and irrigated acres in the Model Domain of the settlement and the watershed area of the Republican River Basin referred to in the compact.
In the settlement, the Model Domain is described as 30,000 square miles, which equates to 19,200,000 acres. The groundwater irrigated acres in Appendix K of the settlement is estimated at 1,692,521 acres for Nebraska.
Appendix K lists the counties and estimated groundwater irrigated acres for each county. They are as follows:
| County | Acres | NRD | |||
| Adams | 30,212 | Little Blue | |||
| Buffalo | 0 | Central Platte | |||
| Chase | 165,365 | Upper Rep. | |||
| Clay | 1,882 | Little Blue | |||
| Dawson | 46,483 | Central Platte | |||
| Deuel | 4,495 | South Platte | |||
| Dundy | 84,797 | Upper Rep. | Franklin | 85,623 | Lower Rep. |
| Frontier | 58,718 | Middle Rep. | |||
| Furnas | 60,434 | Lower Rep. | |||
| Gosper | 76,230 | Tri-Basin | |||
| Harlan | 76,626 | Lower Rep. | |||
| Hayes | 44,337 | Middle Rep. | |||
| Hitch. | 32,213 | Middle Rep. | |||
| Kearney | 200,797 | Tri-Basin | |||
| Keith | 49,197 | Twin Platte | |||
| Lincoln | 128,381 | Middle Rep. | |||
| & Twin Platte | |||||
| Nuckolls | 19,981 | Lower Rep. & | |||
| Little Blue | |||||
| Perkins | 138,275 | Upper Rep. | |||
| Phelps | 246,269 | Tri-Basin | |||
| R.W. | 58,153 | Middle Rep. | |||
| Webster | 45,982 | Lower Rep. | |||
| & Little Blue | |||||
| Total | 1,692,521 |
The Republican River Basin (Compact) is described as a 24,900 square mile watershed, which equates to 15,936,000 acres. I called the Tri-Basin, Lower, Middle and Upper Republican NRDs and asked for their portion of the groundwater irrigated acres in the Republican River Basin watershed, and they totaled 1,261,482 acres in 2008.
Much of the data for settlement compliance comes from the model. When Nebraska signed the settlement, it appears to me they agreed to an additional 3,264,000 acres of area and an additional 431,039 groundwater irrigated when calculating the Settlement Compliance as the Model Domain is larger than the compact watershed.
The proposed changes for the Lower, Middle and Upper Republican NRD's Integrated Management Plans involve 1,072,235 groundwater irrigated acres. The Model Domain estimated groundwater irrigated acres are 1,692,521, which means that 620,286 groundwater irrigated acres have no proposed plan in place to meet Settlement Compliance.
As an irrigator in the Lower Republican NRD, I will oppose the state DNR plan to lower our allocations again. The data from the model is used to calculate settlement compliance.
Consider the information I've presented and you have to ask, why would the State DNR present a plant that doesn't include 620,286 groundwater irrigated acres under the model domain.
It's time for Gov. Heineman and Director Brian Dunnigan of the DNR to give some answers.
Dale Helms,
Holbrook