By Russ Pankonin, The Imperial Republican Co-Publisher
    For several months, the negotiating committee of the Upper Republican Natural Resource District has been meeting with the Department of Natural Resources, seeking to arrive at some level of allocation that farmers in the URNRD can count on.
     DNR Director Ann Bleed has said on many occasions recently that groundwater allocations have to be cut in an effort to help Nebraska come into compliance with the 2002 settlement with Kansas over Republican River flows.
     The reality of the situation is that farmers could shut off every well in the Republican Basin for five years and it would still not be enough to get Nebraska into compliance. To me and most farmers, that says that cutting irrigation allocations does not make sense.
      What would result would be the economic devastation of the entire basin which relies in great part on the engine of the ag sector to drive the economy.
      Earlier this month, at the compact meeting between Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, Kansas' attorney general rattled the saber, indicating he would be taking some action in the next 90 days to get Nebraska and Colorado into compliance. What that action will be is anybody's guess.
     During that meeting, Bleed noted that reduced groundwater pumping does little in the short term to affect compliance. While the NRDs in the basin acknowledge there are long-term issues we still must address, such as the lag effect, shutting down wells does not serve the basin at all.
     During the governor's recent visit, he too was reminded by numerous individuals that lower allocations are not the answer to this multi-faceted problem. However, he continues to find his direction from his appointed head of DNR rather than from his constituents on the front line.
     LB 701 was passed to address compliance issues, with options such as buying surface water, controlling vegetation and augmenting stream flow. Please, governor, give these things a chance to work before opting for an easy out of cutting allocations.
     Sometimes I believe we may have a better chance fighting Kansas than going head-to-head with those in our own state who don't seem to understand.
     We urge the URNRD to stand firm against requests to further lower the allocation and support them in whatever action they have to take down the road to protect this basin.