LLNRD BOARD APPROVES 3,000 ACRES OF NEW IRRIGATION
Applications for 3,000 new irrigated acres in the Lower Loup Natural Resources District will be accepted in September. Development of the new acres of groundwater irrigation was approved for the coming year by the Lower Loup NRD Board of Directors at their March meeting. District General Manager Leon “Butch” Koehlmoos said that the application window will be open from September 1- 20, 2011, only. This is the third year that the NRD Board has approved new irrigation in the District.
NRD Assistant Manager Russ Callan said that up to 10,000 acres of new irrigation can be developed in the Lower Loup and in each of the other NRDs in the lower Platte River Basin over four years thanks to a bill passed by the Nebraska Legislature. That bill, LB-483, allowed limited groundwater irrigation development by NRDs in river basins where a fully-appropriated designation had been reversed.
Koehlmoos said that previous applications would not be carried over and landowners would have to re-apply for the new irrigated acres. For 2011, 53 applications were approved for 2,002 acres from the 215 eligible proposals received by the District.
Landowners will be notified of their application’s outcome by December 1. The NRD Board’s action leaves 3,000 acres of the 10,000 total available for 2013, the fourth and final year of new irrigated acres allowed under LB-483. Callan said a board vote would be required next year to authorize all or part of those acres for development.
