Sprinkles & Splashes

Sprinkles and Splashes, the official MRNRD newsletter, is published quarterly. It is made available to all district residents through the post office and as an insert in the McCook Daily Gazette. If you are not a district resident and would like to be added to our mailing list, click here.

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Special Republican River Settlement Issue

On December 16, 2002 Governor Mike Johanns and Attorney General Don Stenberg announced that Nebraska reached an out-of-court settlement in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Kansas vs. Nebraska, over the Republican River Basin Compact. Five months later in May 2003, the Supreme Court approved the settlement.

The Compact, signed in 1943 by the three basin states of Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado, allocated the average annual water supply in the Republican River giving 49% to Nebraska, 40% to Kansas and 11% to Colorado. The 17 months of negotiations were intense, grueling and time consuming for the representatives of each state.

The Settlement agreement meets the key objectives Nebraska hoped to achieve and avoided the uncertainty and expenses that would have been involved had it gone to trial. The Settlement agreement states that compliance will be measured in 2007 unless we have a water-short year, in which case compliance will be measured in 2006.

Ground water pumping beginning in 2003 will be the basis of a five-year running average that Nebraska must not exceed in order to comply with the Compact Settlement. In water-short years this running average becomes a two or three-year average. A water-short year is one in which the Bureau of Reclamation projects the water supply for the Kansas/Nebraska Bostwick Irrigation District to be less than 119,000 acre-feet.

In a water-short year Nebraska must limit its consumptive uses above and below the Guide Rock diversion dam near Guide Rock, Nebraska. It is expected that Nebraska should be able to maintain most, if not all, of its existing uses in normal years. In water-short years, which occurs 25% to 33% of the time, Nebraska must reduce it’s consumptive use in order to stay in compliance with the compact.

Controls proposed at the May 11, 2004 Board of Directors meeting and awaiting approval from DNR are:

• A 10 percent reduction in certified irrigated acres. These reduced acres must have a history of use.
• A 15 inch base allocation of water. This also limits the reserve to six inches with no more than three inches of overuse in any one year. Overuse in a water-short year will be prohibited.
• Those new wells drilled since July will be allocated a two inch less than base allocation or 13 inches.
• Incentive programs may be considered to temporarily or permanently retire irrigated acres.
• These will be significant penalties established for overuse or other noncompliance. Penalties