News
| Nebraska
looks at augmentation sites |
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| Written by Tony Rayl | |
| Tuesday, 15 April 2008 | |
| By Russ Pankonin Imperial Republican Engineers with Miller & Associates of Kearney identified nine possible sites in a study to look for locations that could be used to augment stream flows in the Republican Basin. Members of the Upper Republican Natural Resource District board (URNRD), along with the public, got their first look at the study during last week’s regular board meeting in Imperial. Jasper Fanning, manager of the URNRD, said the study identified and examined three sites in the western third of the basin—one in the Upper Republican and two in the Lower Republican NRD. When engineers modeled groundwater depletion from the pumping of augmentation wells, these three sites showed the least amount of depletion over a 40-year period. “At first, that’s where we thought we would go,” Fanning said during his review of the study during the meeting. The unknown of how much water would be lost in the transport from this region to Kansas proved to be too big of a stumbling block for these three sites. Sites 4 and 9, on the northern edge of the Basin, proved to have the highest amount of depletion. Fanning said the study suggests their location near the groundwater mound in that region helps intensify the depletion at those sites. Fanning said site 8 provides the best location to get water to Kansas. Water could be put in the diversion at Guide Rock and would be delivered to Kansas at Hardy, Neb. Any depletions that would occur would most likely show up further downstream, which Fanning said would be a benefit to Nebraska. Sites 6 and 7 could be used to put water into the Nebraska Bostwick Irrigation District canals for transport down to Guide Rock and then Hardy. Site 5 and another in Site 6 would be the best sites to pull water from to put into Harlan County Dam, if needed to avoid a water-short year. The water stored in Harlan must total 119,000 acre feet to ward off a water-short year declaration. Under such a declaration, Nebraska’s water use, for compliance purposes, is averaged over two years instead of three years. Further studies planned Traci Witthuhn, coordinator of the Republican River Coalition, said she had just completed grant applications to help pay for the next steps in the study—localized modeling on each site and the engineering of pipelines. Fanning said the initial modeling was done using the Republican River model used for compact compliance. To verify the data, engineers want to do their own modeling on sites worthy of sinking augmentation wells. Fanning said the engineering of the pipelines will be the most expensive phase of the study. Colorado has proposed a pipeline to dump 15,000 acre-feet of water at the Nebraska state line for their compliance effort. Fanning said pipe sizes on that project will range from 36 to 42 inches, along with a pumping station. His concern about their project is the protection of that water for compliance purposes. Under current Nebraska law, anyone with surface rights in that stretch of river could use the water. Fanning said the state needs to adopt law that would protect that water from any kind of diversion or use, earmarking it strictly for compliance. Pumping of groundwater wells close to the river in that area could also impact the quantity of water available for compliance purposes. Surface water negotitations Fanning said negotiations are underway with the Riverside and Frenchman Valley irrigation districts on the possible sale of their surface water allotment for 2008. The state is also negotiating with the Frenchman Cambridge District to limit withdrawals from canals until late June. This would allow more water to flow into Harlan and perhaps move Nebraska out of a water-short declaration this year. With the passage of LB 1094, surface irrigators who gave up their water in 2007 will be paid. The three NRDs in the basin have already requested funds made available in the bill to pay the 300 or so farmers approximately $8.8 million due them. |