Upper Republican NRD Manager Jasper Fanning talks about LB 701 during the signing ceremony in Lincoln Tuesday as Gov. Dave Heineman looks on. (Courtesy photo)

    By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman put his signature on landmark water legislation Tuesday, making LB 701 law.
     "This bill marks a historic moment for water in Nebraska," the governor said Tuesday.
     Tackling the water issues in the Republican Basin was a daunting task, but one that couldn't be ignored, he noted.
     He said hours of negotiations and compromise resulted in the bill he signed.
     Senator Mark Christensen's water bill, and its accompanying appropriation bill, LB 701A, cleared final passage on the floor of the Legislature last Thursday.
     Both bills passed by a wide margin, with LB 701 getting a 43-0 vote with the appropriation measure getting a 44-0 vote.
     To pass both the legislation and its appropriation bill, the body voted 39-0 to suspend the rules. Without that, the bill would have had to wait until senators adopted the state budget with the bill's appropriation in it.
    Bill addresses compliance issues
     LB 701 was designed to address issues in the Republican River Basin to comply with a 2001 water compact settlement with Kansas over Republican flows.
     The bill will allow natural resource districts in the basin to take a number of actions, such as surface water and groundwater buyouts, vegetation control and augmentation of existing water supplies.
     In a first, the bill grants NRDs the authority to issue bonds to repay the cost of those compliance activities.
     To pay for the bonds, NRDs will receive an additional levy authority of 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, along with the ability to implement a $10 per-irrigated-acre fee throughout the basin.
     Christensen said the bill will impose one of the biggest tax increases ever in the district. However, it provides the framework to enable irrigation to continue in the basin.
     Throughout the whole debate on LB 701, and even during his fall campaign, Christensen reminded people how important it was to take action on the compliance issue.
     He said Kansas could go to a federal judge seeking retribution for Nebraska's lack of compliance with the compact settlement.
     The worst-case scenario, he has contended, is that a judge could shut down irrigation throughout the basin until compliance was met. This would devastate the economy of the basin.
     The bill went through a number of revisions before taking its final form.
     Christensen gutted his original bill with a total rewrite right before the initial hearing. That rewrite was later replaced by the present form of LB 701.
     Both Christensen and Upper Republican NRD Manager Jasper Fanning said there were things they would have liked to have seen in the bill that didn't make it. However, both noted the bill was the best result possible.
    Dec. meeting a turning point
     Gov. Heineman commended all those involved with the bill for their efforts to bring forth a workable solution.
     He said a December, 2006, meeting in McCook may have well been the turning point for addressing compliance issues.
     He and Ann Bleed, director of the Department of Natural Resources, put forth a worst-case scenario of drastically reduced allocations to come into compliance.
     That meeting resulted in the recognition that these issues were serious and needed to be addressed.
     Perhaps most rewarding for the governor was the fact that the solution came from the NRDs, ag leaders and other community representatives, not from the state.
     Granted, there will be some sacrifice in the basin, he said, but LB 701 gives them the local control to address the issues.
    Allocation reductions probable
     Despite efforts through the bill to meet compact compliance, its passage doesn't guarantee that Kansas won't still pursue the issue in court. Nor does it guarantee that farmers in the basin won't be looking at additional allocation reductions next year.
     Bleed said Tuesday it's likely that irrigation allocations will be reduced in the next round of integrated management plans. "The question is just how much," she said.
     She said her department has already been discussing the issue with the basin NRD boards.
     She hoped to have some recommendations by late summer.