Wednesday, August 20, 2008

By GINGER JENSEN
Hub Regional Correspondent

 

ALMA - Changes proposed to the Lower Republican Natural Resources District's Groundwater Management Rules and Regulations would give landowners until the end of 2008 to make sure their assessed irrigated acres and certified irrigated acres match.

Also, the burden of understanding the rules and regulations will be placed on landowners.

"The purpose of these proposed changes is to put teeth in the rules and regulations and to close any present loopholes," Manager Mike Clements said at Thursday's LRNRD board meeting in Alma.

No date was set for a public hearing because more changes will be considered. A hearing is required before the board can take action on any rule change.

The loophole-closing measures also say that an irrigator found to be operating a well without a properly installed and operating meter will lose his base irrigation water allocation for the following year for a first offense. A second offense may result in permanent forfeiture of certification of acres irrigated by the out-of-compliance well.

The rule changes also would apply to tampering with an installed flowmeter, removing the meter from the well or removing a cable seal. Additionally, any well without a required flowmeter will be considered an illegal well.

The proposed new rule says: "No later than Dec. 31, 2008, all certified acres must be classified as irrigated in the county assessor's office. Any acres that are thereafter classified as anything other than irrigated in the county assessor's office shall permanently forfeit their certification."

Clements said it was added to the proposed changes to give notice to Lower Republican NRD landowners - all of Furnas, Harlan and Franklin counties, and parts of Webster and Nuckolls counties - that they have until the end of this year to confirm that their irrigated acres assessed by their county for tax purposes equal the certified irrigated acres on record with the LRNRD.

"Once we have a final version of the rules and regulations, we want to do a better job of notifying the public of these changes," he said.

A statement will be added that says it's the landowners' responsibility to know what's required. It says: "It is presumed that any person subject to these rules and regulations has full knowledge of their contents, requirements, and prohibitions. No person shall be able to use ignorance of the provisions of these rules and regulations as a defense in any enforcement action or penalty proceeding."

In other business Thursday, Eastern Republican River Riparian Project Coordinator Merle Illian of Red Cloud reported on progress to enhance river flows from Harlan County Dam to Superior by removing invasive vegetation in the river channel.

The project received a $772,500 grant from the state Department of Agriculture from funds authorized by LB701, passed by the Nebraska Legislature in 2007.

In the past year, the herbicide Habitat was sprayed on 1,220 acres of the river and 800 acres at Harlan County Lake. Target species were phragmites, saltcedar, reed canary grass, cattails and willows.

The project also removed debris from 83 miles of the river below Harlan County Dam and burned a quarter-mile area that included four islands below the dam.

However, Illian said deep disking on a two-mile stretch of the river west of the Red Cloud bridge had the most dramatic effect on the ability of the river to efficiently carry water. "The islands are being built up by deposits of silt and then vegetation continues to grow," he said. "The islands are the culprits that are plugging the river."

After deep disking, water flowing down the river scoured out the debris and the islands were gone. "We've helped the river a lot," Illian said.

As an example, he said that for the past month, water released off and on from Harlan County Dam at 750 cubic feet per second hasn't caused any flooding downstream. Two years ago, releases of 400 cfs would cause flooding.

"That deep disking is really needed," Illian said. "It's what did the trick."

Work on the river is a project of the Twin Valley Weed Management Area, a coalition of public and private agencies in south-central Nebraska that was established in 2004.

The coalition has received a $501,000 LB701 grant from the Department of Agriculture for 2008. The target this year is to enhance river flows between Harlan County Lake to Cambridge. The work will start at the lake and work west.

The LRNRD directors voted Thursday to include $15,000 in the fiscal year 2008-09 budget for the Twin Valley Weed Management Area to pay expenses not covered by grant funds.