With Groundwater Limits In Place, Nebraska Trying To Support 500K New Acres @ 1997 Water Use Levels

[hatrack]

LINCOLN - Nebraska water regulators at the state and local level passed up chances a decade ago to limit groundwater irrigation development in the Platte River basin. Now, a half-million additional acres later, the state must figure out how to pare back water use to the 1997 level. It's a multimillion-dollar question for taxpayers, as well as for the basin's farmers and rural communities. State officials have estimated it will cost $54 million to $102 million by 2020.

"This isn't going to be easy," said Ann Bleed, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources. The state has a bit more time than it does in the Republican River basin to implement a solution - and the magnitude of overuse in the Platte is about a fifth of what the state faces in the Republican.

The Nebraska Legislature last month approved a cash fund pushed by Gov. Dave Heineman to help the state comply with interstate compacts and agreements and to reduce water use in troubled areas. Platte problems, however, will need more money than the cash fund alone can provide. The predicament with the Platte goes back to 1997, when the state agreed to offset the impact of any future irrigation that removed water from the river.

But, for the most part, regulators didn't stop farmers in the basin and its fringes from expanding irrigation operations. Over the next decade, irrigation was added to 508,000 acres, an area nearly the size of Lancaster County. The reasons why they didn't take action are a mix of water politics, weather and whistling in the dark as they denied the problem:

EDIT

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=2387644

[hunter]

1. How will they make Ethanol if they don't have enough water?

And how many cattle can unirrigated Platte River basin land support?

Uh, oh... what do you do when those magic boot-straps you thought you were pulling yourself up by snap clean off?

[NNadir]

2. What a happy tale.

[4dsc]

3. Its unbelievable in western NE

I drove through Nebraska during the winter months and I saw miles of irrigation. I wondered how they were able to grow crops out there as its semi-arid desert.. This developement ought to be interesting.. People will think of themselves first and drain the aquifers..

[pscot]

4. Check out Google earth

From the Oklahoma panhandle to the Dakotas the land is covered with mile-wide irrifation circles. I'd be surprised if we aren't setting ourselves up for another dustbowl. History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.