SPNRD OKs changes to rules and regulations

The South Platte Natural Resources District board of directors approved a number of changes to its rules and regulations at its March board meeting, including changes to fee schedules.

The proposed amendments to the Districtwide Groundwater Management Area Rules and Regulations were reviewed following an information session outlining the changes, followed by a public hearing.

Primarily, the changes were related to chemigation, those made to follow LB272 established by the Nebraska Legislature last year. The District’s Chemigation Program rules were incorporated into the DGMARR and the former, separate, Chemigation Program Policy Manual was repealed. Chemigation-related rules were established in section 7.9 of the DGMARR.

Under the new rules, a new chemigation permit application fee is established at $60 for each permit, and the annual permit renewal fee is $25 each. A special permit has a $100 application fee for each permit, and each emergency permit application has a fee of $250.

Another adopted change is related to variances and provides for a variance request application fee. The fee will be required along with any variance request going up for consideration by the District.

The order amending and restating the Districtwide Groundwater Management Area Rules and Regulations will be published in District newspapers prior to the effective date of April 10. Both redline and clean copies of the amendments are also available on the District Website, http://www.spnrd.org.

In other business, board members were given a review of the Western Water Use Management Model by Hydrogeologist Thad Kuntz of Adaptive Resources, Inc. Kuntz, who has spent a number of years developing the model, told the board it is ready for use and outlined some of its capabilities as a ground water management tool. One of its main functions will be to see how management actions may affect ground water availability and sustainability, as well as how well the District is meeting its obligations under requirements of its integrated management plan.

Kuntz said one analysis on tap will be a Post 1997 Irrigated Acres Depletion Obligation Analysis. Such an analysis will show where the District stands in meeting state-mandated obligations to reduce ground water use to 1997 levels. The analysis will give a modeled look at ground water availability from 1997 forward in time, and also from 2013 use forward. Kuntz suggested modeling forward to the year 2062 for comparison to state requirements.

Kuntz also developed an Allocation Analysis model, which shows the difference between metered and modeled pumping. In his explanation, Kuntz showed that many of the ground water modeling efforts show more water use than the amount actually measured by flow meters. The difference between the amounts allow for possible credits toward depletions. The model, which goes back to the 1950s, becomes more accurate through time, mostly because more information is available for verifying accuracy.

Kuntz also showed members the potential of a Robust Review Analysis, which is a comparative analysis to determined increased depletions from post 1997 irrigated acres and offsets created by the District’s management actions.

The WWUMM will be an important tool in the coming months as the District reviews the effectiveness of its ground water management work, including allocations. The District’s current allocation period ends this growing season and allocations will be set before next year.