The mountain snowpack in Wyoming is above average for this time of year, and experts say the abundance of high-country moisture this spring could recharge reservoirs drained low by drought. That’s good news for Lake McConaughy in western Nebraska.
The big lake’s principal supplier is the North Platte River, which is fed by snowmelt in the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado. A storm Thursday in southeast and central Wyoming deposited up to 20 inches of snow in the Medicine Bow Range in Carbon County and 7 inches in the Centennial area.
That helped push the snow-water equivalent in the critical Upper North Platte drainage to more than 115% of average, and the Little Snake River drainage in Carbon and Sweetwater counties to nearly 130% of average.
Water officials from Nebraska and Kansas have agreed to another month of talks as they try to resolve differences over use of Republican River water. But the top water official in Kansas says that isn’t a sign that legal proceedings are any less likely.
Following a meeting between the two states on Friday in Kansas City, David Barfield said there is still “a significant gap” between Nebraska’s plans to reduce water use and what Kansas officials think needs to be done.
Nebraska in recent years has used more Republican River than it was allowed under a legal compact that guides use of the river. Kansas water officials have said they would seek millions of dollars from Nebraska and a sharp reduction in irrigation in the river basin.
The mountain snowpack in Wyoming is above average for this time of year, and experts say the abundance of high-country moisture this spring could recharge reservoirs drained low by drought. That’s good news for Lake McConaughy in western Nebraska.
The big lake’s principal supplier is the North Platte River, which is fed by snowmelt in the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado. A storm Thursday in southeast and central Wyoming deposited up to 20 inches of snow in the Medicine Bow Range in Carbon County and 7 inches in the Centennial area.
That helped push the snow-water equivalent in the critical Upper North Platte drainage to more than 115% of average, and the Little Snake River drainage in Carbon and Sweetwater counties to nearly 130% of average.
Not too long ago, St. Francis Hospital in Grand Island was sending patients other hospitals because of staffing shortages. Now the facility averages 30 applicants per job opening. In 2000, St. Francis’ human resource department began a number of new programs to improve recruitment and job retention in all departments.
Lee Elliott, vice president of human resources and fund development at St. Francis will be in North Platte on Friday, March 14, to talk about St. Francis’ success. Recruitment of new employees is a challenge in North Platte, and it’s not just in health care, said Karin Lange, regional manager. “Our employment rate is low,” Lange said. “Actually, lack of workers is a statewide issue.”
St. Francis has received national recognition for its innovative approach to employee recruitment and retention. Innovative employers are beginning to target out-of-state workers, especially in areas where unemployment is high, Lange said. “Nebraska does have a huge image problem when you are talking about getting people to move here,” Lange said. Elliott will give his presentation at the 10 a.m. session. The afternoon session is a chance for participants to work on actual recruitment plans that can be taken back to their businesses.
The seminar is sponsored by Nebraska Workforce Development, Great Plains Human Resource Management Association, the North Platte Area Chamber and Mid-Plains Community College. It is open to the public. Call Lange at 308-535-8023.
For 45 years, the Nebraska Community Improvement Program (NCIP) has recognized communities for outstanding community, economic and leadership development efforts. The program encourages communities to develop a community planning process then work to implement a plan with a strong reliance on community volunteers. NCIP, a program of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, will be hosting several workshops to highlight program changes and assist new NCIP communities with the entry process. Workshop dates and locations are as follows:
• Tuesday, April 8, 4-6 p.m. in Loup City, Chamber of Commerce Office.
• Monday, April 14, 6:30-8:30p.m. (MST)in Alliance, Library Learning Center.
• Tuesday, April 15, 2-4 p.m. in Eustis, Senior Center.
• Thursday, April 24, 10 a.m.-noon in Nebraska City, American National Bank.
• Tuesday, April 29, 3-5 p.m. in Bassett, RC&D Building.
• Wednesday, May 7, 6-8 p.m. in Laurel, Community Learning Center.
Communities wanting to participate should submit the Intent to Enter, Community Goals sheet, and Government Resolution by March 31. These documents can be found in the NCIP Awards Guide, which can be downloaded at www.neded.org. To register for the training workshops or for more information, contact Lindsay Papenhausen at 800-426-6505, 402-471-6587, email: lindsay.papenhausen@ded.ne.gov. NCIP is sponsored by the following utilities, which provide cash awards for NCIP award recipients: Aquila, Glenwood Telephone, NorthWestern Energy, SourceGas, Northern Natural Gas, and Great Plains Communications.
Movers and shakers from the world of water sat down in Lincoln Tuesday to try to head off what is quickly becoming an ugly battle over the lower Platte River basin.
The dispute appears to leave little room for compromise between the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and its allies, who are trying to keep water in the river for rare fish and birds, and a growing coalition trying to safeguard more water development.
Ann Bleed, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, appears to have three options: she could shut off further irrigation development and protect three species that depend heavily on Platte habitat; she could go slower and consider an in-stream-flow request from Game and Parks; or she could do nothing, which could easily lead to a lawsuit from the ranks of environmental groups.
NRDs, which preside over groundwater use at the local level, figure prominently in the coalition drawn together to defend water development.
Stan Staab of the Lower Elkhorn NRD in Norfolk said the impact of whatever happens will reach across much of the state to other rivers that flow toward the Platte.
The state’s largest irrigation provider and owner of Lake McConaughy is taking a financial hit after years of low water flows into the massive reservoir.
A roughly 70% dip in revenues from its chief moneymaker — hydropower — over the last five years has Holdrege-based Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District looking at new fees on groundwater irrigators and boaters on Big Mac, among other ideas.
The deficit this year was $3.7 million. The projected shortfall next year is $3.3 million. New recreation fees at the districts lakes are a “dead issue,” for now, said district spokesman Tim Anderson.
But the talk is a sign that the district that irrigates 110,000 acres is concerned its revenue sources are drying up. The financial situation isn’t dire, thanks to reserves built up in the water-soaked 1990s, but it could get that way without more water and more revenue.
Already, the district has hiked land rental rates for cabin owners at Big Mac and Johnson Lake, in some cases quadrupling the cost. This month, district officials will talk with their irrigation customers about raising rates to as much as $27 an acre from $25.
Irrigators have told district officials they want the district to look into charging fees to groundwater users. Such a fee could set up another water showdown in the state between surface and groundwater users, and would require a change in state law that probably won’t be sought during the upcoming legislative session.
A group of residents in the Republican River basin Thursday asked for temporary and permanent injunctions on a new property tax levied by three area natural resource districts.
The residents originally filed the lawsuit directly with the Nebraska Supreme Court last month. The case was refiled in Lancaster County Distinct Court on Thursday after the Supreme Court declined to hear the matter.
LB701, enacted by the Legislature in May, authorized the new tax for the Upper, Middle and Lower Republican natural resource districts, which control groundwater use in the Republican basin.
Among other things, the plaintiffs argue the law is unconstitutional because it exempts property owners outside the districts.
More than 100 Nebraska farmers near the Republican River may be in a financial bind that could last for months and have long-term consequences for the state’s efforts to send Kansas the water it is owed.
Farmers near the river from roughly Cambridge to Harlan County Lake were supposed to be paid a total of nearly $9 million early next month for sending water to Kansas they otherwise would have used to irrigate their crops this year.
But a lawsuit that says a new state law is unconstitutional has held up the payments and it could be several months, maybe longer, before farmers see the checks they were promised.
In October, three irrigation districts — Frenchman-Cambridge, Frenchman Valley and Riverside — agreed to lease roughly 38,000 acre-feet of water to three natural resources districts in the Republican basin for about $9 million.
Much of the money was to be raised through the sale of bonds issued by the upper, middle and lower Republican natural resources districts.
The debt was to then be repaid mostly through property taxes the districts plan to collect under a new state law (passed as LB701) that gives them the authority to levy property taxes to buy or lease water.
But pending litigation prevents Ameritas, the company picked to provide the bonds to the natural resources districts, from doing so until the issue is resolved in the courts. That could take six months or more.
Nine residents of the Republican basin who filed the lawsuit in the state Supreme Court last week say the property taxes aimed at helping meet the state compact unfairly target only residents of the basin.
The payment delay could present serious problems for farmers who make payment and contract decisions months in advance.
Kansas turned up the heat this week in its simmering water war with Nebraska. Kansas’ top water official demanded that Nebraska significantly reduce its use of Republican River water — by shutting down thousands of irrigation wells — and pay monetary damages for the overuse of water in 2005 and 2006.
Kansas contends that Nebraska has violated water use rules spelled out by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2002 settlement between the two states. Gov. Dave Heineman said Nebraska has started programs that will bring the state into compliance.
Nebraska has used more Republican River water than allowed under the out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit brought by Kansas in 1998.
A new state law set up a procedure for Nebraska to buy water from irrigators to supplement river flows. The law, however, is being challenged in court.
The Upper, Middle and Lower Republican NRDs in Nebraska are in the final stages of adopting new plans to manage water in the Republican basin.
Those guidelines would generally reduce the amount of water farmers are allowed to pump for irrigation by 20% from 1998-2002 levels. Nebraska has 45 days to respond to Kansas’ proposed remedy.