May 2, 2018 at 5:00 PM - Water Committee Meeting

Rationale:  A hearing was conducted on Wednesday, May 2, 2018 starting at 5 pm.  Bob Hilger was the presiding public hearing officer.  Testimony was presented by Daryl Andersen and Amy Zoeller - DNR.  Daryl presented the V-IMP document, agreement letter sent to NeDNR and proof of publications.  Amy then presented a letter from DNR director, Jeff Fassett, Nebraska Administrative Code document and Lower Platte Basin Management Plan. Hearing was left open until 5:30 pm. The IMP final draft and hearing notice are attached.

Rationale:  A potential well permit for a poultry operation could be applied for within 1 mile of the red area.  Michael Connely addressed the Committee on the possibility of constructing a poultry breeding operation at a site 2 miles south of Linwood.  Since the committee meeting, Mr. Connelly has talked to a well driller and was informed that he would need numerous wells to reach the 80 GPM capacity.  At this time he will not be pursuing a well permit.  

Rationale: 

Wells Permits Approved: 9

Landowner	Number of Wells	Number of New Irrigated Acres	Type of Well	County	Subarea
CVW Farms Inc	1	62	Irrigation	Saunders	Todd Valley
Dan Wondercheck	1	36	Irrigation	Boone	Upper Newman Grove
Lonny Schaad	1	58	Irrigation	Platte	Lower Shell Creek
WMW Family Farms LLC	1	0	Irrigation	Platte	Middle Shell Creek
Kenneth Hallgren	1	78	Irrigation	Madison	Newman Grove
Duane Nelson	1	130	Irrigation	Madison	Newman Grove
Eugene Volnek	1	53	Irrigation	Dodge	Fremont East
Scott Cassels	1	0	Other (Pond)	Saunders	Leshara Platte Valley
Timothy Mueller	1	0	Livestock	Platte	Lower Shell Creek

 

 

 

 

 

 

The total number of approved permits for 2018 is 11

Location of Approved Well Permits for 2017:  Correct as of ####

Location of Approved Well Permits for 2018:  Correct as of 3/27/2018

County	Irrigation - New	Irrigation - Replacement	Stock	Commercial	Municipal	Other	Total
Butler	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Colfax	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dodge	1	0	1	0	0	0	2
Boone	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Madison	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
Platte	2	1	1	0	0	0	4
Saunders	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Total	10	1	2	0	0	0	11

 

 

Rationale:  Keith Rasmussen is requesting a transfer of 55 certified irrigated acres in Boone County. The acres will be coming from four separate parcels.

Acres Transferring From:
-19.55 acres in the SW1/4 of S13-T20N-R5W Boone County, Upper Newman Grove Subarea
-12.91 acres in the W1/2 NW1/4 of S13-T20N-R5W Boone County, Upper Newman Grove Subarea
-12.65 acres in the E1/2 NW1/4 of S13-T20N-R5W Boone County, Upper Newman Grove Subarea
-10.49 acres in the S1/2 NE1/4 of S18-T20N-R4W Boone County, Upper Newman Grove Subarea

Acres Transferring To:
-55.61 acres in the N1/2 NE1/4 of S18-T20N-R4W Boone County, Upper Newman Grove Subarea
(see attached map; from is in pink, to is in yellow)

Rationale:  The NRD needs to set a net irrigation requirement either by county or zone (attachments). DNR goes by sections and if the NRD uses the 27 inch rolling allocation as the baseline, the NRD will need to calculate the difference in the Acre Foot Allotment.   An example is if 9 inches/acre is used and Saunders County parcel is 6.8 inches/acre.
(160*.57*.50*30 = 13.68 AF (6.8 inches)
160*.75*.50*.30 = 18.00 AF (9 inches)
 
4.32 AF would be charged against the Allotment.  The irrigation requirement difference will play a role in the expanding or transferring of acres.   

The Committee would like to discuss this agenda item at future committee meetings before deciding on a particular number or which document to consider.  

Rationale:  Public Hearing on the GW Rules and Regulations is scheduled for Monday, May 14 at 5 pm.  After reviewing the testimony from the public hearing at the May Board Meeting, potentially there could be 2 or 3 motions needed. 

Rationale:  The attached draft was shown to the Committee in November.  Do we want one policy to handle everything, group by similarity or individually? 

Committee directed staff to draft policies that are similar in nature.   

Rationale:  Bob Hilger, Larry Feala and Daryl attended the Director's meeting in Ord on April 20.  Presentation were made on water efficiency and the Lower Platte Drought Plan.  A budget was approved with no dues being needed in the next fiscal year.  One thing that was pointed out by DNR is when a V-IMP is completed the state doesn't issue an annual appropriation report for the Basin.  

Rationale:  Tri-City Meters has been working on repairing flow meters within the SQS areas.  One of the meters was a SeaMetrics which was still under warranty.  The following is Mark's comments on this particular meter and replacing batteries.  

"On a warranty replacement such as this SeaMetrics we are coming out to do, 
1.  the fact that in most all cases it will require at least 2 trips to the meter location.  One to inspect and diagnose the problem on the meter. And one to replace the meter...
2.  Dialog with the factory, back and forth... min of 1/2 hr.  This one for example was worse, as we had to "go to bat" for the customer, which is the right thing to do in my opinion.  SeaMetrics really wanted us to pull the meter, take pictures of the liner of the meter and send them the pics,,, then reinstall the meter until a decision was made... I Didn't want to do all that work, so we had to convince them the water came from another source, and show pics of issue, which happened to be on the exterior of the meter.  
Now fast forward to current and we have a meter to bring out to replace for the farmer, with no replacement cost except for labor to physically replace it.  We've replaced hundreds of these years ago, so we have a good idea on what it takes.  Some are easier than others, but some can be a real pain in the butt, we've had them installed so tight before that we had to hook a come a long to the truck and put some pressure on the downstream end of pipe to make a gap in the line so we could actually pull out the meter!  I expect the minimum time to spend back at the meter doing the replacement to be an hour, that's on top of the drive back.
With all that said, to cover labor, time, travel, on single replacements like this, we will need to be at $150.00.

Battery replacements I agree are on a scheduled visit, but weren't included in the bid we gave your district.  This will also take more time at each site, as well as expose us to more liability should something not be done correct, or fail after we have been there, such as not getting the meter sealed up correctly, gasket slip out of place and leak, etc...   I think to be fair, I could make do with 1/4 hr labor to change batteries, ($65 x .25 = $16.25 ea)"

Rationale: 

There is still a couple of flow meter applications that have not been approved as they aren't installed.  There may be applications to be approved at the Board meeting.  Dicke's livestock wells still does not have meters installed.  A letter was sent to them after the Board meeting with Jovan assistance. 

At the June 28, 2017 Water Committee, motion (1) offer cost-share for flow meters to producers within 2 miles of the SQS #2 Boundary with-in LPNNRD and (2)to offer cost-share within the SQS #2 area to convert gallons reading registers to acre-inches. Cost-share for registers conversion will be $225 with producer paying the labor cost. Deadline for invoices will be by March 1.

At the November 30, 2016 Water Committee, motion was made to fund GWEL cooperator wells at $1,000 per 8 inch meters ($770 from WSF and $230 from LPNNRD = $1,000) and at $749 per 6 inch meters ($577 from WSF and $172 from LPNNRD = $749)

 

Water Sustainability Fund (WSF)
8 inch meters	XX x 8" meters or XX x $770 = $0
6 inch meters	XX x 6" meters or XX x $577 = $0
WSF Total	$0
	So Running Total WSF Grant = $79,459 of $200,000 grant
	So Remaining Total of WSF Grant = $120,541

 

 

LPNNRD For GWEL Cooperators
8 inch meter	0 x 8" meters or 1 x $230 = $0
6 inch meter	0 x 6" meters or 0 x $172 = $0
Carry over (8 inch meter)	0 x 8" meter or 0 x $230= $0
LPNNRD Total	$0

 

Total For Flow Meter Cost Share Program
WSF & LPNNRD	For approval at September 9, 2017 Board Meeting = $0

 ==========================================

 

Rationale: 

An article is attached showing some recent research on nitrate levels and the risk for cancer.  Some ideas were presented to the Committee at last month's meeting on pursuing a grant to help in the nitrate areas.  Staff is planning on starting the process of writing the grant, so dollar amounts can be included in next year's budget for the Committee to review. 

Rationale:  One online test request was received in April.  Two passed the test in April and a certification card was mail to each.

Cert #	Cert date	Name	Re-cert	Comments
7128	4/3/2018	Bryan Kasik	New
6131	4/16/2018	Eric Nelson	Yes

Rationale: 

For 2018 we have 304 renewals and 5 new permit applications for a current total of 644.  Inspections for 0 renewal permits have been completed.

 

The breakdown by County for the Total Number of Renewals within the LPNNRD.

County	Number of Renewals
Boone	40
Butler	15
Colfax	22
Dodge	65
Madison	6
Platte	46
Saunders	110

 

 

The breakdown by county of the number of renewal inspections completed.

County	Number of Renewal Inspections Completed
Boone
Butler
Colfax
Dodge
Madison
Platte
Saunders

 

 

The breakdown, by county for the ## new chemigation permit applications, are listed below:

County	New Chemigation Applications
Boone
Butler	1
Colfax
Dodge
Madison	1
Platte
Saunders	3

 

Rationale: 

The LPNNRD has received # 3 livestock permit applications from DEQ since the last Water Committee meeting as shown below.

Name	Livestock	Type of Permit	Legal Description	County
Rosendahl Farms, Inc	Swine	Modified	SW SW 7-19N-01E	Platte
Harry Kurtenbach	Swine	Modified	NW NW 13-20N-04W	Platte
Stephen Wieser	Swine	Modified	SW NW 6-19N-01W	Platte

 

 

 Description of permit application

 

Rationale: 

1 new wells has been reviewed and needs to be discussed before approval of the decommissioning since the last Committee meeting.

 

Rationale: 

1 wells have been plugged, reviewed, and ready for cost share payment approval this month.

Well Owner	Type of Well	Cost Share Estimate	County
Tom Christopherson	Injection Well	$280.24	Saunders

 

Rationale:  A meeting will be held on May 3 from 1 to 3 pm at the NRD Board Room in Wahoo. 

Rationale:  Russ and Daryl gave a tour to Jesse Korus and Jacqueline Polashek from UNL Conservation and Survey Division of an area called Platte-Colfax Study Area. One of the ENWRA projects that was originally proposed was a study utilizing the AEM information.  They are looking at 2 areas, with the second site being the Brazil Creek Area.  This study will be looking at AEM flights information to determine if the data obtained can distinguish between a confined and an unconfined aquifer.  The NRD also asked that part of study looks at trigger levels in a confined aquifer to determine if pumping or draw down levels can be used in making management decisions.  UNL will be installing some additional data loggers in this area to compliment the ones that the NRD plans on installing.  The data loggers will provide information for comparison purposes the resistivity data obtained from the AEM flights.    

As the project started to involve the NeDNR asked to participate in the project.  DNR is willing to provide extra funding through a 60-40 match for additional data loggers to increase the coverage in the area. DNR purpose is to obtain information in the calibration of the Lower Platte Basin Water Model.  They want to see if the AEM data will assist in the accuracy of the model. Part of the agreement is that DNR has to be able to receive this information for the life of the data loggers. Per conservation with Jesse Bradley and Jesse Korus the funding could be $12,0000 from UNL, $22,000 from DNR and the NRD portion at $10,000.  Option that was discussed is that DNR would work out a agreement with UNL, with the NRD buying the equipment separately, as planned.  UNL will put a agreement in place to turn the equipment over to the NRD with the understanding that the information will be shared.

Once the data loggers are installed, will the NRD Board be willing to maintain the equipment for the 5-10 years of useful life? The NRD is still working with the Phoenix Group to receive remote reads throughout this area.  If the NRD considers a different management approach more data loggers would be invaluable.  Potentially we could have around 20 additional sites.  

Rationale:  A meeting was held on May 9 at Lower Platte South.  The main discussion centered around the upcoming workshop and open house.  The workshop will be Tuesday, June 19 starting at 3 pm at North Star High School in Lincoln.  The workshop will discuss drought indices, forecasting tools and how to get supplemental water into the Platte River during a drought situation. All NRD Board Members are welcome and encouraged to attend. 

Following the workshop a public open house will begin at 5:30 pm on June 19 at North Star High School.  This open house will update the general public on the drought plan being prepared.  Special invites will be going out to elected officials with a media blast planned for the end of May. 

Consortium members include NeDNR, MUD, LWS, PMRNRD, LPSNRD and LPNNRD.  This group was formed to discuss management options on handling a drought with two grants received from Bureau of Reclamation and Water Sustainablity Fund.  The project primay tasks includes Data Review and Conveyance Forecasting Tool Design, Develop Mitigation/Response Actions and Conveyance Forecasting Tool Enhancements.  The project is about half way through the tasks and the open house will show what has been accomplished and what still needs to be accomplished. 
 

Rationale:  An invoice will be arriving from UNL the first part of May for around $136,000.   

Rationale:  Field collection of the Spring measurements were completed in mid-April.  Summaries and information for landowners are still being put together as the hydrographs are being converted to ‘elevation’ rather than the distance from ground level to water level.
 

Rationale:  A letter was received from the Corps of Engineering on May 4.  A open house will be Wednesday May 16 from 4:30 - 5:30 pm with a bus tour leaving at 5:30 pm.  Meet at the Main Groundwater Treatment Plant located at the Junction of County Road 6 and F near Ashland, NE. 
 

Rationale:  After the last Committee Meeting some suggestions were given to staff on correcting the graphs along with other changes.  Staff contacted the Phoenix Webgroup and they determined that these changes are not within the initial contract agreement.  A change order is attached to make these changes for $3400.

Rationale:  The agenda for the conference is attached.