By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     Senator Mark Christensen's landmark water bill, LB 701, took the first step towards passage last week. Legislators voted 38-1 to pass the measure to the second round of debate later this week.
     Despite last week's overwhelming vote to advance the legislation, Christensen is gearing up for a fight when the bill comes up for second round debate this week.
     "The battle's on. I'm the lone guy fighting this one right now," he said Tuesday morning during his weekly teleconference.
     He said several Omaha senators are dead set against this. If $1 in state funds goes to this effort, they'd just as soon see irrigation shut down in the basin, he said.
     Christensen spent much of Monday and again Tuesday off the floor in meetings with senators. He said he's trying to get issues worked out before the bill comes back to the floor, presumably today (Thursday).
     All of a sudden there have been all kinds of changes people want to make to the bill. He said there are 10-11 amendments senators want to tack on to the bill.
     Some want penalties on natural resources districts if they don't reach compliance. Others want to strip out the carry-forward allocation and pooling that farmers in Upper Republican NRD use to manage water use.
     Christensen said he's trying to reach a consensus with other senators on changes before the bill comes up for debate.
     He said he's been defending carry-forward hard in his meetings. Most want to just take it away, he added.
     "We've had a long debate on this issue," he said. "It's been an extreme point of contention."
     His biggest fear is that if he doesn't get some type of compromise worked out before Thursday, specific issues, such as carry-forward could be lost entirely in a fight on the floor.
     "It's a very difficult situation," he said.
     He said there've been a lot of numbers and information flying around, some not always correct, resulting in miscommunication.
    NRD relationship improving
     After a somewhat rocky relationship with NRDs in the basin and their state association, Christensen said they have developed a good working relationship recently.
     He said their involvement will be key as the bill comes up for further discussion.
     However, he said other NRDs who haven't been involved in this process are "starting to get a little shook."
     Christensen said these other NRDs should have been at the table from the start supporting this. Now, they've come to the table too late, he said.
     People never seem to want to get involved until they are affected, he said. Unfortunately, it's human nature to crisis manage rather than do long-term planning, the senator added.
    Four components of LB 701
     Last week, senators gave approval to amendments that comprise LB 701.
     The four main components of the bill address local funding, state funding, vegetation control and regulation.
     Under the local funding options, the bill would give NRDs the authority to issue bonds to pay for such things at short and long-term surface water buyouts, augmentation of river flows and vegetation management.
     To pay off bonds, the NRDs would be able to implement a $10 per-irrigated-acre fee in the basin, along with authority for an additional levy of up to 10 cents per $100 of valuation.
     The state would provide up to $7.7 million next year in funding to assist compliance efforts.
     Of that, $2 million will be directed annually to fund vegetation control along the streams and rivers in the basin.
     The vegetation control provision was originally introduced as LB 458 by Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege. That bill was rolled into LB 701.
     In addition, NRDs will have the authority to issue immediate temporary stays on any new water wells or the addition of irrigated acres.
     All of these efforts are being made in the Republican basin in an effort to comply with a 2002 settlement with Kansas over the lack of Republican River flows into that state.