Sunday, July 06, 2008

By GINGER JENSEN
Hub Regional Correspondent

ALMA - Republican Basin surface water irrigators can water their crops this summer for the first time in years, thanks to higher water levels in some basin lakes.

It has been five years since the Nebraska Bostwick Irrigation District based in Red Cloud has had the promise of significant water releases from Harlan County Lake. The 2008 plan is to deliver 7 inches of water per acre.

Nebraska Bostwick Manager Mike Delka said that amount is "pretty firm" and could go up slightly, depending on continuing Republican River inflows to the lake this spring. Thursday, the federal Bureau of Reclamation office in McCook reported that Harlan County Lake is at 93 percent of full volume.

In 2006 and 2007, Nebraska Bostwick irrigators voted to sell their limited water allocations to the state Department of Natural Resources. The water was sent down the river to Kansas to help comply with terms of the 1943 Republican River Compact settlement.

In all of the past five years, there were some natural river flows available to some irrigators, but no water from the drought-depleted lake.

Delka told the Hub that some Bostwick irrigators are debating whether to take their 7 inches per acre this year or carry it over in the lake for next year in hopes of a higher allocation.

He explained that the Lower Republican Natural Resources District's Integrated Water Management Plan allocates 9 inches per acre annually for groundwater users. Irrigators who use both surface water and groundwater must take their surface water first and deduct that amount from their groundwater allocation.
For 2008, that would mean Bostwick irrigators would deduct their 7 inches of surface water from the canal, leaving them the ability to pump only 2 inches per acre from groundwater.

Delka said district officials haven't decided whether to bank the 2008 water or deliver it and divide any unused portion among customers who do take delivery service.

"Everyone has to play the game since we are tied in together," he said.

Meanwhile, west of Harlan County Lake, Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District will provide water to customers from two of the district's four canals. Manager Roy Patterson said 8 inches per acre will be delivered from the Cambridge and Red Willow canals.

In 2007, there wasn't enough water available to deliver through the Red Willow Canal, and customers along the Cambridge Canal sold their allocation to the Upper, Middle and Lower Republican NRDs to enhance river flows to Kansas.

No water will be delivered this year to customers along the Meeker or Bartley canals, Patterson said.
"Things were looking good earlier this year," he said, "but the west hasn't been getting the rain this spring."

Harry Stunk Lake at Cambridge, which supplies the Cambridge Canal, is full and was over the spillway Wednesday, Patterson said.

Bill Peck, the Bureau of Reclamation's chief of water operations at the McCook office, said that while most Republican Basin lakes are higher than last year, those in the western part of the state haven't had a lot of recharge.

"Those lakes have been down since 2002 from the effects of decreased base flows, and we have to depend on good runoffs to recharge storage," Peck said. "The whole basin is affected by lower base flows."

Groundwater numbers are mixed in the Lower Republican NRD, where staff just completed spring measurements of static water levels in about 300 observation wells.

LRNRD Assistant Manager Bryan Lubeck said he was surprised that so many wells showed a decline from spring 2007 to spring 2008. He was even more surprised that some wells are lower now than when fall measurements were taken.

"The average wasn't a lot different than normal," Lubeck said. "But I had thought with more rain and less pumping, they would have been higher."

The lower numbers were most evident east of Harlan County Lake in Franklin, Webster and Nuckolls counties. Lubeck attributed much of the decline to having no water delivered through or seeping from the Nebraska Bostwick canals for the past five years.

Overall, LRNRD observation wells averaged an increase of 0.72 from spring 2007 to spring 2008. The highest average was 1.22 feet in Furnas County and lowest was 0.16 of a foot in Nuckolls County.

The positive news is measurements have shown an average rise in the water table for the past three to four years. Lubeck said that compares to average annual declines of about 3 feet during the drought years.

"In my mind, if we were really overusing water, we shouldn't be seeing the static water levels coming back up this fast," he said. "We're coming out of the drought, and the water table is coming right back up."