By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     Just two days before the scheduled hearing on LB 701, Senator Mark Christensen gutted his water bill and amended it with entirely new language.
     During his weekly teleconference Tuesday, Christensen said his new amendment takes out three parts of the bill that were drawing the most opposition.
     Elements gone from the bill include formation of an oversight Basin Administration Committee, any specific language on transfers and removal of any irrigation fees or property tax assessment.
     Christensen said his new bill assigns the source of stream depletions, with 65 percent going to conservation, 15 percent to vegetation growth, 15 percent to groundwater pumping and 5 percent to surface water use.
     Since the state is responsible for depletions, that would require the state to address the largest share of depletions in the form of conservation and vegetation management.
     With a goal of getting Nebraska into compliance with a settlement reached with Kansas over Republican River water, Christensen proposes setting specific allocations in the basin during water-short years.
     Under the settlement, a water-short year is determined by the amount of water stored in Harlan County Reservoir near Alma.
     In Chase, Dundy and Perkins Counties, Christensen said the allocation would be around 11 inches per year.
     The bill would also give the irrigator the right to transfer water from one field to another, providing the transfer was in a direction away from a river or stream in the basin.
     Irrigators would also be able to purchase an additional 20 percent more of their groundwater allocation, if another irrigator opts to sell the water.
     Christensen said he feels the new language will give the irrigators more flexibility and they will know how much water they will get. This will enable them to decide whether they need to transfer some of their own water or perhaps buy additional water.
     Under this scenario, Christensen said the reduced allocations in water-short years would still allow Nebraska to be within 10 percent of compliance after five years.
     Perhaps the biggest factor in his new language, he said, is that no additional funding, either through per-acre fees or property taxes, would be needed. He said he'd received lots of opposition to that.
     Since the cuts will be made through allocation reductions, he said there should be no need for additional funds.
     He sees this as a plus to farmers in the region because of the other alternatives in the bill to give them more local control.
     In addition, the water-short year allocations are better than what the Department of Natural Resources has proposed and would provide a higher allocation in wet years.
     Since depletions due to conservation and vegetation will be the state's responsibility, Christensen questioned why local money should be raised to pay for the state's assigned depletions.
     Christensen felt he could sell the change to the senators because the plan shows significant cuts by the farmers of up to 40 percent. "I think it's very sellable," he said.
     Christensen planned to introduce the change on the floor of the Legislature Tuesday. The newly-amended bill should be available on the Legislature's web site at www.nebraskalegislature.gov or on the WaterClaim web site at www.waterclaim.org.