Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.

We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.

Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. Please use the button below to manage your account.

Access all content on our website for $9.99 per month

Access all content on our website for 48 hours

 Verify you have a print subscription to get free digital access to our website

Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.

Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.

Northeast/North Central Nebraska’s most trusted, comprehensive, and timely news source

Additional requirements for new uses of groundwater for irrigation in the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District are likely to be voted on at the LENRD Board of Directors meeting later this month, board members agreed Thursday night.

Picking up from a discussion a month ago, Brian Bruckner, LENRD assistant general manager, again recommended the district stick with its current system for scoring standard variances. He said neither he nor the staff think the new groundwater model is ready to be used this year to help the district decide which applications for irrigated acres are approved.

An approved variance from the district is required to expand groundwater irrigated acres either from an existing well or a new well.

Bruckner said, however, that new requirements for those seeking variances for irrigation should be added this year. He suggested those seeking variances be required to use chemigation and soil moisture probes, neither of which is mandated. He also favored keeping the 9-acre inch allocation for new irrigation wells.

Meeting a soil score of 85 is one of the current requirements, but director Chad Korth said he favored lowering that to 80. Others agreed.

Directors Jay Reikofski and Mark Hall asked about the possibility of allowing more irrigation in the phase 3 areas and some other areas where new wells aren’t currently allowed.

Bruckner said whether to allow wells in the phase 3 areas and in other geographic eligible areas is something the board can decide each year. However, allowing wells in the quantity management sub-areas likely isn’t possible yet this year as that would require an amendment to the LENRD rules, which could take three months to complete.

Hall and Reikofski were in favor of opening phase 3 for more irrigation, provided good management practices are in place. Hall said he doesn’t want more nitrogen applied on those acres and favored mandating chemigation for those who use any new well that may be approved.

Added Reikofski: “We can still go by a scoring system but let them at least have a chance to put a well down.”

Mike Sousek, LENRD general manager, said it’s not about the phase 3 areas not having the water, but that it’s about managing water quality.

Director Joel Hansen favored waiting until the new groundwater model is ready before opening those areas closed to new wells, saying it will help the board make better decisions, based on more scientific data.

Committee members and Sousek agreed that new variance requirements be considered at the Thursday, July 28, meeting.

Bruckner said he would bring the suggestions forward and the board could either give them a thumbs up or thumbs down. He said the board also needs to decide how many new irrigated acres it wants to approve and when the sign-up period for variance applications will be.

Korth said the board needs to put something in place for new wells.

“We need to be thinking seriously about this,” he said. “We’re not out of this drought. It’s serious what is going on out there.”

Talk of the dry conditions continued with Bruckner sharing the current drought monitor map and information on what the river basin coalition is doing to address drought management.

He reminded the committee that LENRD has a drought mitigation plan. It is designed to let the board take action to address potential groundwater shortages due to drought conditions.

LENRD has already encouraged voluntary groundwater conservation this summer. With areas of the district now in the “extreme drought” category (D3), other water use limits could come next year if the D3 area expands or becomes a D4 area (exceptional drought).

It’s too late for any new water restrictions to be put in place for this growing season, and the board would have to establish any new limits for 2023 on or before Nov. 1 of this year. Any new restrictions could be rescinded if conditions improve.

In other matters Thursday, the committee of the whole:

— Learned that a preliminary feasibility report has been completed by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and is ready to submit for possible planning funding for the North Fork Elkhorn River Watershed and Flood Prevention Operation (WFPO).

The LENRD is seeking a grant for $750,000 to study the watershed in an area upstream from Pierce to see what could be done to help mitigate flooding in Osmond and with the possible reaccreditation of the Pierce levee.

The study likely will present several options for the board to consider to determine which ones might qualify for federal funding.

Sousek said the LENRD should hear back by October if funds are approved for a planning study, and then the lengthy process would begin to look at various options.

— Heard from projects manager Curt Becker that he and HDR engineers are talking with potential well drillers to, hopefully, find one capable of resolving the high artesian pressure at the Willow Creek dam. The goal is to make a recommendation on a well driller at the July 28 meeting.

— Heard from Becker that a plan for erosion repair on the Willow Creek downstream bank is in the works. Needed is a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

— Heard that the Corps of Engineers has approved a permit for the Elkhorn riverbank stabilization repairs near Scribner. Bids for the work will be opened Tuesday, and a contract should be ready for the board to consider July 28.

— Received an update on a pilot project in Pierce County from Craig Marsh, with Complete Agronomy Solutions. He reviewed data from this spring’s soil and water monitoring data on fields in that county.

LONDON (AP) — Britain shattered its record for highest temperature ever registered Tuesday amid a heat wave that has seared swaths of Europe, as the U.K.'s national weather forecaster said such highs are now a fact of life in a country ill-prepared for such extremes.

Desperate times call for innovative solutions.

SOUTH SIOUX CITY — Members of the Northeast Community College Board of Governors held roundtable sessions with the heads of several businesses and organizations in the South Sioux City and the Siouxland region to discuss their goals and workforce needs. The meeting took place before the boar…

If voters are willing, the Norfolk Sanitary District will be history following the November general election.

MADISON — Budget talks will pick up later this month for the Madison County Board of Commissioners, but pieces of the puzzle began falling into place Tuesday.

DETROIT (AP) — The FBI found no evidence of missing Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa during a search of land under a New Jersey bridge, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

DETROIT (AP) — The FBI found no evidence of missing Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa during a sear…

NEW YORK (AP) — An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted polio, the fir…

ISTANBUL (AP) — Russian and Ukrainian officials were poised Friday to sign deals designed to…

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian emergency workers recovered three bodies from a school hit by…

WASHINGTON (AP) — For more than a year, President Joe Biden’s ability to avoid the coronavir…

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.