By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     Frustrated by the lack of leadership shown by the state, the negotiating committee of the Upper Republican Natural Resource District decided to take the lead and formulate its own plan for basin-wide compliance.
     During a special meeting Feb. 6, the committee presented their proposal to the full board for their consideration.
     After more than two hours of discussion, board members voted 9-1 to forward the proposal to the other NRDs in the Republican Basin for their consideration and support. Jeff Wallin was the only dissenting vote.
     URNRD Manager Jasper Fanning said he's attended meeting after meeting on the compliance issue but the state has yet to present any solid type of plan.
     Thus far, the only thing the state has offered is further reductions in allocations, which includes drastic allocation reductions in alluvial wells close to streams and rivers in the basin.
     In that plan, Fanning said the state failed to take into consideration any of the alternatives the basin NRDs have discussed.
     As a result, the URNRD decided to step forward and take the lead by developing a compliance plan. The goal is to create a plan the basin NRDs can support, along with garnering statewide support from other NRDs outside the basin.
    Plan first of its kind
     Fanning said this plan represents the first-ever plan to actually address compliance issues in the basin.
     The plan was presented to representatives of the other basin NRDs during a meeting in McCook last week.
     Representatives met with officials of the Department of Natural Resources to address specific questions about compliance and the complex water model being used to determine water supplies and depletions.
     Fanning also attended the board meeting of the Lower Republican NRD late last week to fully brief them on the plan.
     Fanning said one of the challenges in the basin is the differential in alluvial wells (those wells close to the river) in each district, especially in the Lower Republican. He said about 40 percent of their wells are alluvial wells and could be the subject of the most regulation in the state's proposal.
     The Middle Republican NRD board will discuss the plan this week.
     Fanning said the goal is to formulate a plan that can address the goals and needs of the four NRDs. He said a plan that they all agree on and support will go a long way in winning support with other NRDs in the state, and more importantly, in the Legislature.
     Funding for the plan will be a key issue. Presently, the plan calls for a per-acre fee of up to $10 per acre on all irrigated ground in addition to the present levy.
     Of this new money, half would be used for local matches for compliance efforts with the other half for groundwater management activities.
     This session, 44th District Senator Mark Christensen of Imperial introduced LB 701, his priority bill to address water issues in the Republican Basin.
     Fanning said this bill could serve as the tool to provide funding for compliance efforts, along with language to clarify transfers or augmentation.
     The foremost goal of the URNRD plan, he said, is to provide a means for the state to comply with the compact obligations as quickly as possible.
     Second, the plan should minimize the economic impact in the basin while maintaining compliance.
     Thirdly, he said the plan should provide equitable treatment of water users in the basin.
    Compensation may be needed
     Because more alluvial wells are in the Lower and Middle Republican NRDs, they stand to face more regulation to reach compliance. As a result, Fanning said that area may need to be more heavily compensated from the basin fees to alleviate some of the pain that won't be felt by upland irrigators.
     Some of the immediate activities planned to reach compliance include reducing use of surface and alluvial groundwater, as well as augmentation.
     Intermediate range projects include management of vegetation in and near rivers.
     Long range activities include dealing with the lag effect and offsetting new uses.
    Alluvial vs. quick response wells
     Fanning said the plan refers to alluvial wells as those close to the river that have a direct response on stream flow. These are different than quick response wells which were used to help determine CREP boundaries. These wells could be as far as 2.5 miles from the river.
     Fanning said the meaning of the two well classifications are much different. In the URNRD, 88,000 acres rest within the QR area while only about 55,000 acres in the district are irrigated from alluvial wells.
     He said many of the wells west of Enders Lake are quick response wells but are not likely to be considered alluvial wells.
    Compliance efforts
     The Republican River Basin NRDs are seeking to comply with the terms of a 2002 settlement in which Kansas sued Nebraska and Colorado over water use in the basin.
     Kansas claimed they were not receiving the amount of water they deserved under a 1943 water compact between the three states.
     In the past five years, Nebraska has fallen short of delivering the water to Kansas, due in part to an ongoing drought and increased groundwater pumping as a result.
     To date, Nebraska is about 200,000 acre-feet short of complying with the terms of the compact settlement.