South Platte NRD June 8 Board of Directors Meeting

On Tuesday, June 8, 2021 the South Platte Natural Resources District (SPNRD) Board of Directors (Board) held its monthly meeting at 5:00 p.m. in the South Platte NRD Conference Room (551 Parkland Drive, Sidney NE).

Thad Kuntz P.G., Adaptive Resources Inc., (ARI) presented a review of the current Western Water Use Management Model (WWUMM) update and the next Robust Review Analysis. Kuntz provided a summary of the work that has been completed in the past few years for the WWUMM.

During his presentation, Kuntz explained the implementation of Brule Fracture and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) in the modeling. Kuntz presented the work that has been completed for the robust review and provided target dates and a look at the projects that will need to be completed before the next review in 2023. The next round of modeling will begin in the next fiscal year with a focus on a dashboard to convey data between the NRDs and NeDNR on the modeling data.

Ryan Reisdorff, Water Resources Specialist with the SPNRD, provided a summary of the Draft Annual Report of Water Activities in the SPNRD. He explained that there were 8 total transfers in 2020, one of which was an industrial transfer and the others were producers putting up pivots.

There were three well construction permits which were all replacement irrigation wells in Deuel County. There are 30 non-baseline certifications for industrial use which will need a offset if they want to use industrial water. There are 19 other industries tracked with approved baselines.

The 10 municipalities in the District are tracked for their water use. Due to the drought in 2020, the water use was higher than normal. Reisdorff provided information on the water use report and pointed out that in 2020, the amount of water pumped on average was 11.5 inches per acre. There were 130.5 acres that were retired voluntarily and in 2020 there were 47 excess flow diversion days and all 13 of the reuse pits were used.

There were 1,400 acre feet of credit from accretions from the pits and the bottom of the Western Canal. Five of the 10 municipalities in the District have conservation plans which are included in the report.