By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     Irrigators in the Upper Republican Natural Resources District (URNRD) will likely receive a slight reduction in their new allocation versus a reduction in acres.
     During the URNRD board's regular meeting Tuesday, Dec. 4, the groundwater committee proposed a five-year allocation of 13 inches as part of the new rules and regulations.
     The proposed rules do not include any mandatory acreage reduction by irrigators. An earlier proposal included a 5 percent reduction in irrigated acres while leaving the allocation at its present level of 13.5 inches.
     URNRD Manager Jasper Fanning said the board and the office received a lot of feedback against the acreage reduction.
     Fanning said several farmers noted they would do their own acreage reduction if needed as part of their own allocation management. What they didn't want was a mandated reduction by the NRD.
     The proposal also leaves carryforward (CF) in place as a management tool for dry periods.
     The CF provides farmers with a water management tool during dry years, Fanning noted.
     He said the committee discussed at length how to limit the use of CF in years of average precipitation when CF shouldn't be needed.
     The committee considered reducing a farmer's carryforward by a multiplier factor for CF overuse in normal years. For instance, if a farmer used two inches of CF, he would actually lose 1.5 times his CF, or three inches.
     However, the committee felt the amount of oversight and personnel commitment would outweigh the benefit. However, Fanning said this is something the NRD will track closely in the future.
     The proposed rules and regs will also include a reference to water banking, a new concept that could help reduce overall consumption in the basin.
     While the provisions of water banking have not been worked out, the board wants to include it as a possible management tool.
     The concept of water banking calls for buying water from quick response areas, in turn reducing consumptive use and aiding compact compliance.
     This purchased water could then be used in areas where additional pumping would have little or no immediate impact on stream flows.
    Special meeting set for Dec. 20
     The URNRD board will hold a special board meeting Thursday, Dec. 20, at the office in Imperial, beginning at 2 p.m.
     The board will give further consideration to the rules and regs and set a formal hearing date for input from district patrons.
     In addition, the board will likely take action to extend the existing rules and regulations until the hearing and adoption of the new proposed rules and regs.
    No action on IMP
     Board members took no action on adopting an integrated management plan (IMP) for next year.
     The ability to fund compact compliance activities, such as surface water purchases, augmentation and transfers, is held in limbo due to litigation. Without such funding, an IMP could be useless or even detrimental to the basin.
     A lawsuit challenges the NRDs' authority to issue bonds to pay surface water irrigators who leased their water out in 2007.
     The bonds would be repaid with a per-irrigated-acre occupation tax and additional tax levy across the basin.