(LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR) The Lincoln Journal Star reports, "More checks on irrigators could be imposed in Nebraska to help preserve the state's groundwater supplies. Three irrigation-related bills were introduced to the Legislature on Thursday by Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege."
Read the rest of the LJS article here: http://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_ba896c16-06de-11df-9dd7-001cc4c03286.html.
The bills introduced are:
LB 1054 would codify in state statute a definition of "correlative rights" that, up to this point, has been defined by case law and discussed most recently in the landmark Nebraska Supreme Court decision Spear T Ranch v. Knaub, 269 Neb. 177 (2005). The bill would enforce this statutory correlative rights doctrine to groundwater "within a river basin when the Department of Natural Resources or a [natural resources] district determines it is necessary to comply with state or federal agreements or compacts." The thrust of the bill is to provide authority for an equal reduction in irrigation allocations to all irrigators in times of shortfall, and to provide compensation to landowners only if allocations are reduced to zero.Read LB 1054 here: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/Current/PDF/Intro/LB1054.pdf
LB 1056 requires monitoring of aquifer levels in each river basin and compare them to a base year of 1963. If there is a depletion of ten to twenty percent, meters and allocations for irrigation are required to be imposed on irrigators. If the depletion is twenty to thirty percent, landowners in the area may use no more than fifty percent of their annual irrigation allocation. If the depletion is greater than thirty percent, irrigators could use none of their annual allocation for irrigation.Read LB 1056 here: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/Current/PDF/Intro/LB1056.pdf.
LB 1057 would create the "Republican River Basin Water Sustainability Task Force," tasked with finding ways to avoid "water short years," the trigger in the Republican River Compact that requires stricter water allocations.Read LB 1057 here: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/FloorDocs/Current/PDF/Intro/LB1057.pdf.
