| 08/12/2005 |
| Some say hearings pointless with leader on the way out |
| By LORI POTTER , Hub Staff Writer |
KEARNEY — Roger Patterson’s status as a Nebraska Department of Natural Resources Director preparing to leave his post next Friday was an issue at Thursday’s hearing on rules to define fully appropriated basins in Nebraska.
“If anyone is sitting in the lame duck chair, you are,” Central Platte Natural Resources District Director Carroll Sheldon of Kearney said to Patterson Thursday. “Nothing personal, but I don’t know why you’re here.” “Plainly stated, the rules as presented are unacceptable,” Sheldon added. Sheldon and Nebraskans First Executive Director Don Adams said Gov. Dave Heineman should direct DNR officials to write rules that are more acceptable to Nebraska water users. A statement from Heineman’s office Thursday afternoon said that after he returns next week from an ag trade mission to Cuba, the governor plans to meet with the DNR director to discuss the hearing issues. Nebraska Association of Resources District President Dave Nelson of Upland, a Tri-Basin NRD director, told the Hub he believes there will be a compromise “somewhere along the line,” perhaps with the boundary formula. That’s one of the most controversial parts of the rules. DNR is proposing a 10/50 line that defines areas within which pumping of a well for 50 years will deplete the river or a base flow tributary by at least 10 percent of the amount pumped. Nelson and other NRD officials said they want the formula to be 28 percent in 40 years. That’s the standard used for such water regulation issues as Nebraska’s depletions plan under the three-state Platte River Cooperative Agreement and DNR’s boundaries for the overappropriated part of the Platte Basin west of Elm Creek. NRD officials said there would be administrative problems with 10/50 areas because they would overlap other districts and basins. Some testimony focused on economic effects. Adams said the rules effectively put a “closed to new business” sign on Nebraska, hurt property values and “essentially turn our groundwater into stone.” Dave Thom of T&L Irrigation in Hastings said the effects are to the entire infrastructure that supports irrigated agriculture. Lincoln attorney Don Blankenau, who spoke on behalf of the League of Municipalities, said, “Nebraska often is referred to as the Saudi Arabia of water.” He cautioned against “arbitrary and capricious” acts of regulation and said the rules would be legally insufficient if they aren’t supported by the best science available. Blankenau urged DNR officials to redraft the rules. Although most speakers Thursday said the 10/50 boundary formula goes too far, a few testified that the rules need to be more strict to truly protect streamflows and surface water rights from further depletions linked to groundwater pumping. Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District General Manager Don Kraus of Holdrege described the low water in Lake McConaughy and said 2005 surface water irrigation deliveries for Central customers are 37 percent of normal. He said that with the 28/40 formula, half the water pumped from a well could be a streamflow depletion by the 40th year. “That doesn’t protect surface water supplies or meet a fairness test,” Kraus said. Bertrand farmer Tom Schwarz said the rights of some water users can’t be ignored just because protecting those rights is inconvenient or unpopular. He added that with either 10/50 or 28/40, there still will be streamflow depletions. “We will allow the taking of that surface water user’s property rights,” he said. Although he uses mostly groundwater, Schwarz said he got involved in surface water rights issues years ago when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission tried to “take” Central water. If Nebraskans allow the taking of any property right, it puts all property rights at risk, he said. e-mail to: lori.potter@kearneyhub.com
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