By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     For more than two hours last Thursday night, local and state water officials hammered out changes to an integrated management plan (IMP) to make it acceptable to both parties.
     Board members of the Upper Republican Natural Resource District (URNRD) met with Ann Bleed, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (DNR), to review the proposed document.
     The NRD's negotiating committee has been meeting with Bleed and her staff over the past several months to forge a document agreeable to both parties.
     The draft IMP was presented to the full board during last week's special meeting in Imperial attended by about 20 other people in addition to board members.
     After considerable discussion, URNRD board members, led by Jeff Wallin of Imperial, sought several changes to the IMP.
     The board sought Bleed's assurance that DNR would not approve any IMP in the basin unless the plan restricts each respective district's water use. This use would have to be within the allocation based on 1998-2002 baseline pumping. Depletions would be allocated the same.
     The 1998-2002 baseline pumping assigns 44 percent of the water and depletions to the URNRD, 30 percent to the Middle Republican NRD and 26 percent to the Lower Republican NRD.
     Another change sought dealt with when the NRDs meet their pumping targets but the state still remains out of compliance with the compact settlement with Kansas.
     In that case, any further reductions imposed by DNR would be allocated at the same district proportions as the baseline pumping and depletions.
     As part of the IMP, the URNRD agreed to reduce the baseline groundwater pumping from 1998-2002 by 20 percent.
     The average pumping during those baseline years stood at 531,000 acre-feet (AF).
     A 20 percent reduction would require dropping pumping in the URNRD to 425,000 AF.
     URNRD Manager Jasper Fanning said the pumping in the district in 2005 and 2006 was right at or just above that figure.
     As a result, in a normal year, Fanning felt the district could comply with that reduction.
     In dry years, the plan allows the district to exceed the 425,000 AF level, provided they implement incentive or augmentation programs to increase water supply and stay within their 44 percent level of depletion.
     The plan also allows the district to establish, fund and implement its own water conservation programs, with the credit for any resulting water savings to go directly to the URNRD.
     Bleed said these were changes she felt she could work with, provided the final wording was acceptable.
     Fanning prepared changes for Bleed's review prior to Tuesday night's regular board meeting.
    Slight reduction in acres sought
     Part of last week's discussions centered on the rules and regulations for the URNRD, which address allocations.
     One of the recommendations from the groundwater committee to the board was a 5 percent reduction in irrigated acres in the district while leaving the allocation at the current 13.5 inches.
     Fanning said the reduction in acres would allow the district to stay within their goal of 425,000 AF and help start addressing the long-term lag effect.
     He estimated that if allocations were changed instead of reducing wet acres, a 10-15 percent reduction in allocation would be needed.
     He said the acreage reduction impacts everyone equally while allocation reductions would not, because of carry-forward.
     Fanning said the board is also exploring adding water banking to their rules and regulations, which would allow farmers to buy additional water from farmers who do not need it.
     Both the IMP and rules and regulations were on Tuesday night's agenda.
     A recap of Tuesday's action will follow in next week's edition.