GRAND ISLAND — Negotiators attempting to set rules for Nebraska’s fully appropriated river basins have failed to reach consensus. That means Nebraska Department of Natural Resources Director Roger Patterson will be the rule maker.
In a report to the Central Platte Natural Resources District Board of Directors Thursday, Manager Ron Bishop described the disagreement that couldn’t be resolved in four meetings in the past six weeks.
He told the Hub that under LB962, the state’s new integrated water management law, the rules must be set to guide DNR’s annual review of basins to determine which are fully appropriated. DNR’s first report is due Jan. 1.
“We requested that they go into a negotiated rule-making process,” Bishop said, and that resulted in meetings involving about 20 representatives of NRDs, public power districts, irrigation districts, farm organizations, environmental groups, well drillers and others.
“We’re done,” Bishop said. “We have reached a point where it’s obvious there will be no consensus.”
That means Patterson will decide the rules, a public hearing will be scheduled and the rules will be issued. Bishop expects those steps to be completed within the next 60 days.
The one issue that wasn’t resolved involved this question: In fully appropriated basins, how far away from the river are wells subject to management to help maintain streamflows?
In the management areas, any new water use must be offset by retiring another use. There can be no net increase in water use within the basin.
Bishop said that in the Platte Basin, the generally accepted formula for defining management boundaries is “40/28.” In 40 years, 28 percent of the water pumped from the well would have affected the river.
For the Central Platte NRD, which runs along the north side of the Platte River from the edge of Platte County west through Dawson County, that definition would include wells from two miles to six or seven miles from the river, he said.
During negotiations, Bishop said, some participants wanted to use a 50-year time frame, and others wanted river effects measured from 28 percent down to 1 percent or less.
Some formulas would include the entire CPNRD and adjoining areas. “It will double or more the land area in our district that would have to offset (new water uses),” Bishop said.
He expects that Patterson’s rules will fall somewhere in the middle of the various formulas discussed.
Earlier Thursday, the Central Platte directors and staff toured the district’s Wood River drainage project at Grand Island, Gibbon diversion, Kearney Northeast drainage project and Prairie/Silver/Moores project in northwest Hall County.
