Holdrege Water Conference Report
On an icy night in Holdrege, 55 people participated in a water conference hosted by WaterClaim. Four of the people in attendance were WaterClaim members. The cost to attend the conference was $100. According to Steve Smith, director of WaterClaim, the reason for the fee was to encourage only those who were serious about finding solutions. Four State Senators were in attendance, with another two unable to attend because of closed roads. Senators Flood, Christensen, Carlson, and Wightman participated and expressed their desire to help resolve the water issue. Each indicated that it would be necessary to communicate the needs of the Republican and Platte River Basins to the people who live in the urban areas.
On Friday, December 15, in McCook, Governor Heineman and Ann Bleed, with the Department of Natural Resources, laid out some ideas of what it would take for the Republican River Basin to comply via reducing allocations and shutting down wells. There are 1.2 million irrigated acres in the Republican River Basin. Of those, 334,000 are within 2.5 miles of either side of the stream and are called Quick Response wells. Ann Bleed told the audience in McCook that if the allocation on the Quick Response wells was reduced to about 2.5 to 5 inches a year for five years, Nebraska would begin to comply with the annual requirements of its agreement with Kansas.
Steve Smith estimates that, on the day of the State’s announcement in McCook, the Republican River Basin saw a loss of property values of around $260 million dollars because no one would be willing to purchase Quick Response acres at last week’s prices. He also indicated that there are ten ethanol plants already built or announced for the Republican River Basin. Of those, five appear that they would get most of their corn from Quick Response land. If the Quick Response land loses most of its water allocation, then it will be difficult for those five ethanol plants to be successful. Each of those costs about $160 million to build. Overall, Smith estimates that if the State’s suggestion happens, about 1,900 jobs will be lost from the Basin.
On the Thursday meeting in Holdrege, WaterClaim detailed another way of complying with the requirements of the Settlement Agreement with Kansas. WaterClaim said that all of the irrigation wells could continue to operate at their current allocation if the water supply were increased by bringing water into the Basin.
WaterClaim suggested importing 25,000 acre feet of water each year and that, if the infrastructure were paid for, this could be done for as little as $5 million a year. The water would be moved from the Platte River Basin near Bertrand south via Spring Creek to Harlan County Reservoir.
“With this positive and productive mechanism toward yearly compliance in place as well as future seed enhancements and farming methods that will allow a farmer to grow crops with less water, Nebraska will be able to keep our region strong and economically viable,” said Senator Mark Christensen.
WaterClaim distributed a survey to the attendees and asked how they would answer the policy decisions that must be made.
Survey highlights:
* Half of the attendees own land that is within 2.5 miles of the stream.
* 81% believe the best way to resolve the problem is to import water and manage trees.
* 91% believe policy should be set locally.
* 100% believe land owners should be compensated for a loss of access to water.
* 74% believe businesses should be compensated for community losses.
* 67% believe the compensation should come from a combination of local and State funding sources.
* 60% believe the local funding should be based on property taxes.
* 62% believe the allocation should be the same for everyone, regardless of distance from the stream. (72% of the QR landowners feel this way, and 50% of those without QR land feel this way).
* 91% feel that this is a community problem and that everyone should participate in the financial costs of solving the problem.
WaterClaim is also tracking water legislation that Senator Mark Christensen has said he will introduce as his priority bill in the Legislature. The primary feature of the Legislation is the establishment of a water authority that is responsible for setting the quantity of water each existing regulatory agency is responsible for managing. Senator Christensen says that, “currently the DNR and the NRDs are each doing their best; but when it isn’t enough, someone has to decide how to comply. The River Basin authority would be authorized to do things than any one agency cannot do.”
You can review the meeting reports and draft legislation on the WaterClaim web site at www.waterclaim.org.
WaterClaim is a non-profit water policy research and education group. It has been advocating solving water problems not by shutting off wells and communities but by increasing the water supply.