LB962
limits wells, but existing permits still good
By LORI
POTTER Hub Staff Writer
GRAND ISLAND — Motions approved by the Central Platte Natural Resources
District Board of Directors Thursday will allow well permits issued within
the past nine months to be honored.
The NRD also can continue operating under its own well moratorium rules
and regulations.
LB962, the new water law that took effect July 16, requires immediate
stays in well drilling and acre development in river basins defined as
fully appropriated or overappropriated. That includes the entire Central
Platte NRD.
General Manager Ron Bishop said that state officials have approved the
action reflected in the motions. “You’ll be able to approve
the same kinds of exceptions and let the (NRD) Variance Committee do what
it has been doing,” he told the CPNRD Board of Directors.
The first motion says increases in groundwater-irrigated acres will be
allowed from the use of wells constructed within the past nine months,
even if the new wells aren’t used for irrigation this year. The new
acres must be irrigated before the end of the 2005 irrigation season and
can’t exceed the number of acres listed on the well permit.
Similarly, permits issued within the last nine months will be honored,
allowing wells to be drilled after the state’s stay date. Those new
acres also must be irrigated by the end of the 2005 season.
The second motion allows the CPNRD well moratorium rules to be used to
administer the stays on new wells imposed by the state.
One LB962 change still to be fully defined is an expected expansion of
Dawson County boundaries for the CPNRD well moratorium.
Bishop said about 60 percent more acres will be added, once state officials
set new boundaries for overappropriated parts of the Platte Basin. Most
of the added acres are north of the Platte River.
