Sunday, July 06, 2008

By GINGER JENSEN
Hub Regional Correspondent

ALMA - Several people who allegedly violated rules in the Lower Republican Natural Resources District's integrated water management plan ultimately could lose the right to irrigate some of their farmland.

A public hearing is scheduled at 2 p.m. June 12 at the LRNRD office in Alma for board members to consider possible violations of the IMP's rules and regulations. The alleged violations are illegal certification of irrigated acres, removal of cable seals and/or flow meters on irrigation wells, and failure to pay irrigated taxes on irrigated acres in Furnas County.

Named for the hearing are Gerald Schluntz, S&S Ranch Inc., Brent and Patricia Schluntz, Schluntz Family Farms, Tamara Bishop, Luella Harrold and the Schluntz Family Trust.

If found guilty of the violations, the IMP's rule 6-6.8 says, "Any acres that are changed from irrigated to non-irrigated in the county assessor's office shall permanently forfeit the certification for those acres and they will not be considered certified acres for purposes of allocating water for irrigation."

"We can't force people to go to the county assessor's offices and pay irrigated taxes," LRNRD Manager Mike Clements said at Thursday's LRNRD board meeting, "but only certified irrigated acres can be irrigated."

At issue are 10 field identification numbers in Furnas County. LRNRD records show a total of 1,874.3 certified irrigated acres that are receiving a groundwater allocation. However, records in the Furnas County Assessor's office show that for tax purposes, a total of 437 acres are listed as being irrigated.

Clements said the public hearing is required before the board can implement the penalty authorized by the regulations.

In another IMP matter, the board voted against a motion to schedule a public hearing to change a regulation on supplemental wells. A public hearing is required to change any of the plan's rules.

That regulation says that when any surface water is leased or purchased by the state or NRD on land that has both a surface water appropriation and a regulated well, the amount of surface water leased or purchased is deducted from the groundwater allocation.

That's so the total water use doesn't exceed the LRNRD's base groundwater allocation, which now is 9 inches per acre.

The language is similar to what's included in LB701 passed by the Nebraska Legislature in 2007. However, wording about the surface water deduction was stricken in the 2008 legislative session in LB1094.

State Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial told the Hub Thursday the limitation had to be removed for the state to purchase 2008 water from the Frenchman Valley and Riverside irrigation districts as part of continuing efforts to use surface water to enhance Republican River flows to Kansas.

"The farmers wouldn't sell their water otherwise," Christensen said.

On Thursday, the LRNRD directors voted 7-4 not to change the NRD's rules to mirror LB1094. That means the overall allocation limit remains in place.

Voting against the motion were: Brian Holtze of Wilsonville, James Moore of Bloomington, Nelson Trambly of Campbell, Jay Ziegler of Riverton, Terry Hoit of Red Cloud, Roger Nelson of Superior and Brad Wulf of Red Cloud.

Voting for the motion were: Clark Andrews of Holbrook, Bill Bose of Orleans, Matt Harrison of Naponee and Toby tenBensel of Arapahoe.

In other business, Kristi Coe of the LRNRD staff reported that of 2,376 field identification numbers in the district, meter readings on 38 field IDs showed total overuse of 88.8 acre-inches of water in the past five-year allocation period.

The board discussed, but took no action on scheduling a public hearing to consider changing the penalty on irrigators who exceed their water allocations. One option discussed was to set all penalties as an inch-for-inch offset.