Rules likely will extend area of well moratorium

By LORI POTTER
Hub Staff Writer

GRAND ISLAND — The Dawson County boundaries for a well moratorium area likely will be extended several more miles from the main stem of the Platte River when a new state water policy law, LB962, takes effect in the coming months.

Central Platte Natural Resources District Manager Ron Bishop of Grand Island and Water Committee Chairman Dick Mercer of Kearney said Thursday that about 75 percent more Dawson County land is included in proposed boundaries for state-designated overappropriated river basins.

“That’s because they’re picking up tributaries, as well as the Platte River,” Bishop said. “It’s the state’s rules.”

In an April publication about LB962, Nebraska Department of Natural Resources officials said that all or part of nine NRDs will be designated as “fully appropriated” when the law takes effect July 16. Those NRDs are: Upper Niobrara White, North Platte, South Platte, Twin Platte, Central Platte, Upper Republican, Middle Republican, Lower Republican and Tri-Basin.

How each is affected will depend on actions already taken by DNR and the NRD under existing water laws. Most of the NRDs have implemented well moratoriums in parts of or throughout their districts and are working on integrated groundwater and surface water management plans.

By Sept. 15, DNR Director Roger Patterson also will designate “overappropriated” basins, subbasins or river reaches where it’s been determined that current permitted water uses aren’t sustainable in the long term. Those areas are subject to moratoriums on new surface water rights and new wells.

Integrated management plans in both fully appropriated and overappropriated basins must be implemented within three to five years of the designations.

In his report at the CPNRD board meeting Thursday, Mercer said, “Everything above the Kearney Canal (from west of Elm Creek to the Wyoming state line) will be included in an overappropriated basin.”

The proposed boundaries for that area were described by DNR officials at a June 16 meeting with representatives of five affected NRDs — Central Platte, Tri-Basin, Twin Platte, North Platte and South Platte.

That designation could come within a week of the July 16 announcements, Mercer said. Then, public hearings will be scheduled prior to Sept. 15 to take testimony about the boundaries and requirements in the overappropriated areas.

Bishop said the proposed state boundaries in the western part of the district, primarily Dawson County, are wider than the existing CPNRD well moratorium area. The moratorium boundaries extend about six to eight miles from the Platte River, from Dawson County to Polk County.

Mercer said it’s hoped that computer models being developed under COHYST, the Cooperative Hydrology Study, will be available to help with arguments at the DNR hearings about where the state boundary lines should be.

“It will have a big effect on the western part of the district ... from the Kearney diversion to the state line on the Platte and its tributaries,” he said.

In another LB962 matter, CPNRD Director Carroll Sheldon of Kearney said the Lower Republican NRD, based at Alma, likely will challenge the new law. Of particular concern are measures that take some decision making out of the hands of the NRDs, he said.

Under LB962, disputes between NRDs and DNR over development or implementation of integrated water management plans will be referred to a five-member Interrelated Water Review Board for a final decision. The board will include five members: the governor or his appointee, another governor-appointed member and three members selected from a list of at least six people nominated by the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission.

The LRNRD Board of Directors has scheduled a 10 a.m. hearing July 16 at the Johnson Center in Alma to consider overruling some requirements in LB962.

Sheldon didn’t request CPNRD board action Thursday, but he hopes there will be some future sign of support for the Lower Republican’s efforts.

e-mail to:
lori.potter@kearneyhub.com