By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
    ■ Heineman asking Kansas to be a good neighbor.
    
     Following months of negotiations with the state, the board of the Upper Republican Natural Resource District (NRD) will hold a special meeting tonight (Thursday) to begin the process of setting allocations and adopting a new integrated management plan.
     The meeting will be held in Imperial beginning at 7:30 p.m. at the Lied Imperial Public Library at 7th & Broadway.
     According to Manager Jasper Fanning, the negotiating and groundwater committees of the board will introduce a draft of the integrated management plan and the proposed rules and regulations.
     In negotiating with the Department of Natural Resources, he said the allocations will be decoupled from the IMP. This is important because the DNR and the NRD must both agree to the IMP.
     Fanning said this will make it easier for the NRD to operate and fulfill its own obligations towards keeping its own depletions with 44 percent of the state's total depletion.
     Total depletions are a factor in complying with Republican River Compact Settlement with Kansas.
     By keeping the allocations within the rules and regulations, Fanning said the NRD can make quicker decisions themselves rather than have DNR involved as well. "It's a smoother way of operating," he added. "Plus, it maximizes local control."
    Slight reduction in acres
     What the committees are going to propose to the board for consideration, he said, will be a minor reduction in irrigated acreage instead of reductions in the allocation. The present allocation stands at 13.5 inches per year.
     If the board forwards the proposed IMP and rules and regulations, a hearing will be held in late October to gather input from patrons in the district.
     In the interim, the rules and regulations will be published in area newspapers so patrons can examine them prior to the hearing.
     Action on the IMP and rules and regs can be taken at the November, 2007 meeting.