By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     Nebraska's director of the Department of Natural Resources didn't feel last week's meeting of Republican River Compact Administration officials changed any minds. But, it did buy Nebraska some more time in their dispute with Kansas.
     Director Ann Bleed met for two days last week with David Barfield, chief engineer of the Kansas Division of Water Resources, and Dick Wolfe, chief engineer of the Colorado Division of Water Resources.
     Kansas had asked for a special meeting to address Nebraska's overuse of water in 2005 and 2006. They claim Kansas was injured by the overuse.
     In a letter to Nebraska late last year, Barfield requested, among other things, that all irrigation wells within 2.5 miles of any stream or tributary of the Republican River be shut down.
     If Nebraska didn't comply, they threatened to take the issue to non-binding arbitration as the first step of the dispute process outlined in the 2002 Republican River Compact Settlement.
    Bought some time
     Bleed said last week's discussions bought some time for Nebraska. Bleed said her staff did a good job of presenting Nebraska's side of the issue, prompting Kansas to take more time to examine the data.
     She said her staff worked hard to present a technical program that may have caused Kansas to step back and realize they couldn't negotiate in good faith without first evaluating the information.
     She noted Kansas did not officially request the start of the arbitration process during the meeting. However, they did reserve the right to begin at any time if they felt warranted to do so.
     The three parties are planning to resume the meeting April 11 for further discussions. Another special meeting is planned for mid-May. The annual meeting of the compact is held in August.
     Bleed noted Nebraska was out of compliance in 2005 and 2006 with the compact allocation provisions. However, the two states still can not agree on the accounting to determine actual usage figures.
     Bleed said she asked Kansas for some direction on what type of damages they are expecting from the overuse. However, she said they haven't specified what they are looking for monetarily or how they will base that decision.
    Staying in compliance from here
     She said Nebraska told Kansas that the implementation of integrated management plans in the basin's natural resources districts (NRD), which reduced allocations, are one of the steps being taken to reach compliance going forward.
     She added the state and the NRDs are also studying the feasibility of stream augmentation plans, in which groundwater would be added to the streams, to help reach compliance.
     In addition, Bleed said they are talking with surface water irrigation districts in the basin about leasing surface water again in 2008.
     In 2007, the entities leased about 30,000 acre-feet of water from basin irrigation districts. LB 701 was passed last year to allow NRDs to collect additional property tax levies and an occupational tax on irrigated acres to pay for the surface water leases.
     However, a constitutional challenge to the tax levy in LB 701 has stalled payment to the surface water owners.
     A bill to get the surface water owners paid, LB 1094, passed first round debate in the Legislature last week on a 36-0 vote.
     Bleed is encouraged by the support for LB 1094 in the Legislature. Without any payment for 2007 water leased, surface water owners are not likely to lease any water in 2008, she said.
    Colorado augmentation plan
     Colorado presented its own augmentation plan to the compact administrators during the meeting.
     Colorado has purchased surface water rights near the Colorado/Nebraska border and plans to build a pipeline to deliver water to the border to keep Colorado in compliance with the compact settlement.
     Bleed said Nebraska and Kansas will both evaluate the plan to see if it passes muster under the settlement.
     She said Nebraska will examine it closely to make sure Colorado's plan doesn't adversely affect Nebraska's effort to stay in compliance now and in the future.
     She said DNR is not opposed to the Colorado plan, noting its a valuable plan. However, she cautioned that they will have to evaluate it further.
     Such a plan must have the approval of all three states.
     She said engineers are looking at augmentation plans and possible sites in the Republican River basin.
     The most beneficial site in terms of compact compliance, she said, would be below Harlan County Dam, near Guide Rock, which is near a stream-measuring gauge with data used for compact compliance.
     Other augmentation sites further upstream are being considered to get more water into Harlan County Dam. If storage reaches 119,000 acre-feet by the end of June, Nebraska can avoid a water-short year.
     A water-short year reduces the number of years that consumption in the basin can be averaged down to two years.
     Upper Republican NRD Manager Jasper Fanning said at their meeting earlier this month that a draft of the augmentation study should be available soon.