News Release from
The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District

Date: March 5, 2007
Contact: Tim Anderson, Public Relations Manager
Phone: (308) 995-8601

March 5, 2007 Board Meeting Summary

(HOLDREGE, Neb.) -- With a self-imposed deadline approaching on a decision about whether to initiate legal action to protect inflows to Lake McConaughy, The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District's board of directors reviewed options with its legal counsel at Monday's monthly meeting.

Legal counsel Mike Klein said that among the options for consideration are lawsuits against an individual groundwater irrigator; against all groundwater irrigators above Lake McConaughy; against all groundwater irrigators above Central's diversion point near North Platte; and/or against the North Platte Natural Resources District, the agency in charge of groundwater management in the area above Lake McConaughy.

Klein said legal action in federal court is also being considered because, in effect, Central and its irrigation customers are being deprived of a property right without due process.

Central has been in negotiations for months with representatives of the North Platte NRD. Last September, the board voted to delay until the December board meeting a decision on filing legal action against the NRD for allowing continued interference with Central's surface water right on the North Platte River. After promising meetings with NPNRD representatives, the board pushed the deadline back to April 2, the date of Central's next board meeting.

"I would characterize the last meeting (with NPNRD representatives two weeks ago) as something less than productive," said General Manager Don Kraus. "The NRD was reluctant to consider any kind of restrictions on groundwater use within the Pumpkin Creek watershed. We hope to make progress at our next meeting."

Klein said that LB962, the comprehensive water law passed in 2004, contains a notion of fundamental fairness in resolving or preventing conflicts between surface water and groundwater users.

"Central's irrigation customers have been limited to 6.7 inches in 2005, 8.4 in 2006 and will receive 6.7 inches in 2007," said Klein. "At the same time, flows in the North Platte River have remained well below normal and Lake McConaughy's water level has suffered. In the meantime, we've seen no consideration for fairness on the North Platte NRD's part in its lack of actions to regulate groundwater use that is affecting flows in the North Platte River."

Director Robert Garrett of Minden, who sits on Central's ad hoc committee addressing conflicts between groundwater use and surface water appropriations, said that it is evident that his counterparts on the NPNRD board understand the problems, but they are unwilling to take the steps necessary to restrict use of groundwater.

"They're trying to protect the economy in their area, just as we are trying to do in our's," Garrett said. "But unless we can get a commitment from the NRD to begin placing some restrictions on water use, we are left with few alternatives other than legal action."

Another meeting between the two parties is scheduled for March 20.

Other issues addressed at Monday's meeting:

• The board passed a resolution that prohibits concealed handguns in Central's buildings throughout the District. The action was in response to a recently enacted state law that allows qualified individuals to acquire permits to carry concealed handguns. In addition to a number of public places where concealed handguns are not permitted, the law allows businesses to prohibit such weapons by posting notice of the prohibition on the premises.

• Customer Service Supervisor Van Fastenau reported that almost 28,000 acres have been enrolled in a District program that allows temporary transfer of water service to and from other acres. The program, now in its third year as a result of water shortages, provides flexibility to irrigation customers seeking to meet crop water needs with less than a full delivery of water.

Central's customers will receive 6.7 inches/acre in 2007. The transfer allows customers to, in effect, increase deliveries to 13.4 inches on some acres while not taking deliveries on a like amount of other acres.

• Civil Engineer Cory Steinke reported that Lake McConaughy's elevation on Monday was 3213.9 with a volume in storage of 580,400 acre-feet (33 percent of capacity). After a period when snowmelt runoff boosted inflows to Lake McConaughy above 1,000 cubic feet per second -- near normal for February -- current inflows are averaging about 525 cfs per day, or about 40 percent of normal.

Snowpack in Wyoming's North Platte River Basin was at 87 percent of the 30-year average on Monday, while snowpack accumulation in the South Platte Basin was 114 percent of average.

• The directors rescheduled the June 4 monthly meeting to June 1 to avoid conflict with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Water Center's natural resources tour to the Pecos River Basin in New Mexico.

• Tri-Basin Natural Resources District Manager John Thorburn reported that 599.5 acres in the TBNRD have been enrolled in the Conservation Corners Program that pays irrigators to not irrigate pivot corners and plant vegetation for wildlife habitat. Thorburn said owners of 551 of the acres chose the program's public access option which permits hunting on the pivot corners. Central customers enrolled 94.6 acres in the program.

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