FULLY APPROPRIATED DESIGNATION REVERSED

The Director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources announced March 30th that he had determined the lower Platte River Basin, including its Loup and Elkhorn River tributaries, was not fully appropriated. DNR Director Brian Dunnigan said that new evidence presented by a coalition of Natural Resources Districts was the basis for overturning the fully appropriated determination.

In a press release, Dunnigan said “After evaluating all of the testimony and information provided through the hearing process, including the discovery of an erroneous method used to develop the ground water model simulations for the preliminary determination, the Lower Platte River Basin is not fully appropriated at this time.” Dunnigan said “I plan to issue the notice this week. This final decision is, as the law requires, based upon the best scientific data, information and methodologies available.”

The Lower Loup NRD currently operates under self-imposed groundwater moratoriums. A moratorium on the granting of new permits to drill high-capacity irrigation wells was implemented in 2006 and a second moratorium on the expansion of irrigated acres was implemented earlier this year. Koehlmoos said the work already completed by the Lower Loup would lessen the impact of the fully appropriated designation for landowners in the District.

In December of 2008, DNR reached a preliminary determination that the basin was fully appropriated, meaning that the maximum level of sustainable development of both surface water and groundwater had been reached. When the preliminary determination was made, nine natural resources districts, including the Lower Loup NRD, formed a coalition to review the legal and regulatory, technical and legislative issues raised. Information from that review was then presented at the last of four public hearings on the basin status in Fremont on March 12, 2009.

Lower Loup NRD General Manager Leon “Butch” Koehlmoos said “the decision of Director Dunnigan to rescind the preliminary determination of the Lower Platte Basin as fully appropriated was the correct one. This is an example that shows the system does work when the correct information is known.”

This page last modified on 3/30/09.