Two of three NRD candidates will advance in at-large race

There will be a run-off at the May 10 Primary Election when all voters in the Upper Republican NRD District cast their ballots for the at-large board position.
    Incumbent at-large board member Brock Stromberger and challengers Brad Dixon and Steven Grams will be on the ballot.
    Only two of the three will advance to the November General Election when they will face off again.
    The NRD board election is non-partisan so individuals do not file with a specific party such as Republican or Democrat.
    County Clerk/Election Commissioner Debra Clark said in non-partisan races, twice the number of candidates based on the seat or seats to be filled will advance out of the Primary. In the NRD case, that means the top two vote-getters will move on to November.
    Questions posed by the news department were given to each candidate.

    1) What in your background/experience do you believe prepares you to be an effective NRD board member?
Dixon: I have been actively farming and ranching all my life, and have been familiar with irrigation, groundwater rules and regulations, the continued decline in groundwater levels and watched as the regulations were not always followed. I am a candidate for the URNRD to make sure everyone is treated fairly and equally.
Grams: I have always farmed with my dad south of Imperial on the Chase/Dundy Co. Line.  I’ve been around irrigation my entire life.  I completely understand its value to the region and our communities.   The farm I grew up on, and the surrounding area is where I consider home.  I care about what our water situation will look like for “EVERYONE” in the next 25 yrs.  I have no self-serving interests motivating me to run for this position.  I believe in the moratorium on drilling new wells and the rules set forth by the URNRD.  We have been fortunate over the years to be able to make a respectable living within the rules.
Stromberger: I’ve been directly involved in agriculture my entire life and serving on this board for the last 4 years has helped me gain knowledge about the district.
    2) What do you view as the primary issue(s) facing the Upper Republican Natural Resources District?
Grams: Maybe the manager, maybe the head of the variance committee.  Compact Compliance is still an issue, but has become more manageable in recent years in large part through augmentation projects which I supported in 2006 - well before the URNRD’s development of the Rock Creek Augmentation Project in 2012. Currently we are faced with important questions locally including:  A) Will the URNRD continue to allow groundwater wells to be moved from mostly depleted areas of the aquifer to increasingly smaller concentrated regions of the most saturated thickness which will only further accelerate groundwater depletion? and B). How can a runaway variance process be reined in and made more transparent to the public and neighbors potentially harmed by such variances as the URNRD increasingly violates its own rules?  Through simple majority and often split-vote approval of numerous such controversial variances in recent years - many passed on direct recommendation from the URNRD Manager Jasper Fanning - the board has repeatedly enabled this relocating of tapped-out irrigation wells and as a result has telegraphed approval of more such variances which will only further increase depletions in areas that have already seen significant declines of 25 feet or more since development.
Stromberger: Water is always the number one issue that comes to mind. Trying to find ways to maintain aquifer levels has been and will continue to be a top priority for this district.
Dixon: The continued decline of the water table levels, and how to stop the decline.
    3) What, if any, new initiatives and/or changes to existing regulations/projects should be undertaken to conserve water in the District?
Stromberger: I feel that the district has been doing good at finding ways to conserve water and continually works hard on finding more—from the district buying out irrigated acres to cost-sharing moisture probes to helping growers better utilize the water that is available.
Dixon: I think an incentive to remove all end gun watering should be created, working with NRCS perhaps. Reducing allocation needs to be studied and determined if a slight reduction is needed.
Grams: To conserve groundwater, more board members must be elected who will think critically and vote in the best interest of the URNRD as a whole and not just on whether they themselves or their operations stand to benefit.  The process by which variances to URNRD rules are applied for and approved must be overhauled to prevent undue influence to protect others from potential negative consequences.  Also, the new and as of yet unproven groundwater water model that the  URNRD has recently developed - having been used increasingly by Manager Fanning to justify several such variances - should be regularly subjected to an independent third party review for accuracy, reliability and administration of the input variables.
    4) Do you support a change to the current annual water allocation of 13” for irrigators? Explain.
Dixon: I believe a change in allocation is probably needed, to a 12” allocation per year.
Grams: Since implementing an allocation of 13 inches per acre, the average usage for the district has been 11.9 inches per year.   Typically only a few users account for the lion’s share of overages in the district, while the majority of irrigators respect the purpose and importance of their allocations.  The current allocation in combination with a reasonable carry forward saving mechanism helps to incentivize water conservation and I believe the allocation should remain as it currently is.
Stromberger: With our district being one of the most restricted it’s hard to take more water away from our producers. Knowing that this is an ongoing issue, though, it’s hard not to reduce allocations. This has been a topic that the board has been in discussion about for a couple of months and is continuing to work on so we can make the best decision possible for the entire district.