A proposed rule that would put further regulations on thousands of groundwater irrigators across Nebraska was approved by outgoing Nebraska Department of Natural Resources Director Roger Patterson on Friday, according to Ron Bishop, manager of the Central Platte Natural Resources District.

Patterson signed the Department of Natural Resources proposed rules that will be used by the department when making its annual designation of which river basins are fully appropriated.

This annual designation, the first of which will be made by Jan. 1, 2006, is required as the result of the passage of LB962, which provided new laws for the integrated management of Nebraska's surface and groundwater resources.

Earlier this month in Kearney, the DNR took public testimony that was overwhelmingly against the proposal to extend the regulations to thousands of new acres of land where wells that have pumped groundwater for 50 years have contributed to a 10 percent decline in river flows.

The Central Platte Natural Resources District, which is based in Grand Island, opposed the DNR rule changes. In April, CPNRD board members took a stand against the proposed DNR rules when they voted to support current boundaries of a temporary suspension on new well drilling.

At the Kearney hearing, Bishop strongly suggested that the Department of Natural Resources reconsider the proposed 50/10 boundary and return to the standard that has been utilized, the 40/28.

Bishop said the DNR decision means that when NRDs begin to develop integrated management plans, there will be a new outside boundary of the area that has to be managed for the purpose of integrated management between groundwater and surface water.

"That new line will be out further than what we anticipated," he said.

The CPNRD board had voted in 2003 to establish the temporary suspension in an area where wells that have pumped groundwater for 40 years have contributed to a 28 percent or more decline in river flows. That covers a six- to eight-mile area along the Platte River throughout the district.

When the state adopts the new proposed 50-year/10 percent rule, Bishop said it could more than double the current area where there's currently a stay on new groundwater drilling unless there's an offset.

Now that Patterson, who left his position as NRD director on Friday, has signed the proposed rule change, Bishop said it will go to both the attorney general's office and the governor's office for review.

Bishop said the board members of the Central Platte NRD have anticipated a 40/28 boundary because it was the boundary used for the last 15 years, and was used for the Platte River Cooperative Agreement between Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming. It also was the boundary used when the Central Platte NRD implemented its temporary well-drilling suspension in 2003.

Bishop said the 50/10 decision is a more narrow issue than depletion of the river. "It's depletion of water rights on the river," he said.

What's driving the issue is the argument that groundwater wells are a contributing factor to the depletion of surface water. There are now nearly 100,000 wells registered in Nebraska and last year the state experienced one of the busiest well-drilling years on record, with 1,800 new wells drilled.

Many of those new wells were drilled in anticipation of new regulations regarding groundwater use.

Bishop said all of the state's NRDs were opposed to the 50/10 rule.

For communities such as Grand Island, Bishop said, the new rule means that future new water uses are going to have to be developed based on some type of management plan and most likely an offset for the new water use.

"What that means is that cities will have to replace the new water that they use and that could take away from some downstream water user, which could be another city," he said.

But Bishop said the cities in the Central Platte NRD are in good shape.

"As they grow, they generally grow out into irrigated land and so they are retiring irrigation use and so they have already provided part or all the offset," he said.

At the Kearney meeting, Patterson said the rule lays out the criteria the department proposes to use when evaluating river basins in Nebraska to determine if they are fully appropriated or overappropriated for groundwater use.

"We want to be proactive and stop development in basins before they are overdeveloped and develop a management plan," he said. "We did not want to see more basins in the state end up like the Republican River, where we have overdeveloped and we are out there telling people to use less water and putting a lot of regulations in place."

Click here to return to story:
http://www.theindependent.com/stories/082005/new_water20.shtml

© The Grand Island Independent