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On the heels of one of the driest years in Northeast Nebraska, the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District Board of Directors declared a drought emergency across the district Thursday.
Director Chad Korth, chairman of the board’s drought monitoring committee, said declaring a drought emergency is required before any plan can be put in place to “protect the health and welfare of the public and minimize negative impacts to groundwater supplies.”
For any new water restrictions to take effect, that plan must be adopted before Nov. 1 to give irrigators and others affected time to prepare.
No plan was voted on Thursday, but Korth did share with the board some of what the committee had discussed to date, including a proposal to not consider any requests for new uses of groundwater for irrigation in those portions of the district that the U.S. Drought Monitor has designated as “extreme drought” (D3) or “exceptional drought” (D4) areas.
The latest drought monitor map issued Thursday morning showed most of the LENRD designated as D3 or D4.
Korth said the plan being discussed would affect irrigators, rural residents and those who are served by municipal water systems.
The proposed plan would allow current irrigators in the district to continue to irrigate, but they would still be limited to their specific variance allocations. Irrigators who don’t operate under specific allocations would, if the proposed plan is approved, be limited to 14 inches per acre.
In addition to not taking requests for new uses of groundwater for irrigation, the committee’s proposal would limit municipal utility customers to 250 gallons of water per person, per day. Korth said that amounts to 30,000 gallons a month for a family of four.
The proposal also would require each municipality to, by March 1, adopt a plan to require water conservation and restrict water use by its customers, and document that it is doing so.
Any plan the board might approve in October would remain until the board votes to end the drought emergency now in place. When to end the emergency also is being discussed.
Korth said the committee’s proposal as of Thursday is to end the emergency when drought conditions in any portion of the district are downgraded to a “moderate drought” (D1) designation for 60 successive days.
He offered other possibilities for ending a drought emergency, including a “severe drought” (D2) designation for either 60 days, or D2 for 45 days.
Korth reminded the board that once the drought emergency ends, any groundwater management plan the board may adopt next month also ends and that another plan couldn’t be enacted again before Nov. 1 of next year.
“If we make it (emergency) too easy to come out of and then it dries up again, we will be left with no tools,” he said. “We have to think about that.”
Korth asked the directors to think about the drought plans presented and be ready for more discussion at the committee of the whole meeting Thursday, Oct. 13.
The LENRD is still gathering well water levels and other data, and the drought committee hopes to have that information available when it meets again Thursday, Oct. 6.
In a related matter, LENRD general manager Mike Sousek said the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) appears open to developing an online drought dashboard for the LENRD at no cost to the district. LENRD staff will meet with DNR personnel to determine what the dashboard might include.
Also Thursday, the LENRD board voted to contract with AWS Well Co. of Mead for a test well for the Logan East Rural Water System (LERWS) expansion project at a cost not to exceed $29,000. The cost of a required water quality test is not included in that amount and is estimated to cost between $3,000 and $5,000.
The cost of the test well is more than double what the LERWS expected to pay, but the first well driller it contracted with has equipment problems and isn’t sure it can do the work this fall.
Shawn Blahak, LERWS manager, said AWS might be able to drill in the next week or two.
Sousek said he didn’t see an issue with the LENRD moving forward with the project and he believes the cost will be reimbursed, contingent upon a passing grade on the water quality tests.
Sousek said talks with USDA Rural Development and the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy indicate the proposed new water well, water tower and transmission mains for the Logan East system could be funded by grants. The new well also is proposed to serve the Village of Craig.
The board also voted to have the LENRD begin soliciting requests for qualifications from firms to complete a required preliminary engineering study providing cost estimates, including design and construction, for the new well, water tower and transmission main for the Logan East project.
The Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District Board of Directors met Thursday evening at 1508 Square Turn Blvd. in Norfolk.
Board members present: Mark Hall, Matt Steffen, Jay Reikofski, Dennis Schultz, Rod Zohner, Gary Loftis, Anthony Wisnieski, Joel Hansen, Scott McHenry, Chad Korth, Bob Noonan and Scott Clausen.
Board members absent: Roger Gustafson, Kurt Janke and Jerry Allemann (all excused).
Others in attendance: NRD staff, eight members of the public, two media representatives.
Meeting lasted 3 hours, 30 minutes, including a short finance committee meeting before the board meeting and an executive session to discussion possible litigation.
— Approved the finance subcommittee recommendations, including Lower Elkhorn NRD income of $971,398 and expenses of $464,486; Logan East Rural Water System income of $135,436 and expenses of $43,791; and Wau-Col Water System income of $8,704 and expenses of $6,232.
— Approved a cost-share program to test active domestic wells for nitrates and other contaminants. Owners of wells with water exceeding 10 parts per million (ppm) in nitrates would be eligible to apply for possible Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy (NDEE) funds for a reverse osmosis filter system. The NDEE program begins in January. The water sampling program is voluntary but requires wells to be registered with the state before the LENRD will test them.
— Approved a cost-share program for an LENRD-funded water treatment program for domestic water systems if the well water test results showed nitrate levels at 5 ppm or greater or are positive for pesticides. The district would help pay for water treatment equipment and installation costs. Those with nitrate levels above 10 ppm would still be directed to the NDEE program before they could seek LENRD funds for treatment.
— Approved the Logan East Rural Water System and Wau-Col Water System advisory committee minutes.
— Approved an agreement with Austin Becker and Derek Becker to handle the district’s flow meter preventive maintenance, to test 861 wells in Cuming, Dodge and Burt counties at a cost of $51,660.
— Voted 9-3 to contract with FYRA Engineering for a study to determine the scope of work necessary and estimated cost to renovate the Scribner Airbase’s east dam. It also will look at what areas might get flooded if the dam wasn’t there. The study’s cost is not to exceed $15,813. The dam’s existing auxiliary spillway is not large enough satisfy the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources’ dam safety requirements. Voting no were Zohner, Reikofski and Wisnieski.
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