June 1, 2022 at 6:00 PM - Water Committee Meeting

Rationale:  Attached is a checklist of documents received by NRD staff for Jamie and Cathy Yindrick's irrigated acre transfer request.  They are transferring irrigated acres to Section 2-16-3E, Butler County from Section 13-16N-2E, Butler County and Section 9-15N-4E, Butler County.  The total acres on the new tract would be 142 acres.  Jamie commented that well G-149371 located in Section 13 will be decommissioned after the acres are transferred.  If there are more acres from Section 13 than needed, LPNNRD will get credit for the V-IMP allotment of water.   

The Committee felt that all the documents shown on the list met the requirements of the irrigated acre transfer policy. 

Rationale: 

Wells Permits Approved: #

Landowner	Number of Wells	Number of New Irrigated Acres	Type of Well	County	Subarea
LaRose Preister	1	0	Irrigation	Platte	Lower Newman Grove
Paula Mares	1	0	Irrigation	Colfax	Schuyler

 

 

 

 

 

 

The total number of approved permits for 2022 is #

Location of Approved Well Permits for 2022:  Correct as of ####

County	Irrigation - New	Irrigation - Replacement	Stock	Commercial	Municipal	Other	Total
Butler
Colfax
Dodge
Boone
Madison
Platte
Saunders
Total

 

Rationale:  Attached is an invoice from Papio-Missouri River NRD for $20,433.40 for the completion of this joint project per contract.  Staff have been utilizing this data for well permits and the irrigated acre transfer.  

Rationale:  Letters were sent to 409 producers on May 25 notifying them that their certification had expired.  Options were given to them in the letter.  

Producers have been calling the office.  How does the Committee want to handle these situations?

• Claims Coop/Agronomist does the fertilizing and they have the certification number.
• Someone in a family has certification number for numerous operations.
• Agronomist has a certification number that works for large farms. 

Rationale:  The technical group is planning a meeting on June 28.  

Rationale: 

For 2022, as of 6/1/22, we have 637 renewals and 21 new permit applications for a current total of 658. Inspections for one new permit and seven renewal inspections have been completed. One inspection did not pass thus far.
 

Rationale: 

The LPNNRD has received # 1 livestock permit applications from DEQ since the last Water Committee meeting.
The Board did past a motion to stay neutral on livestock facilities and the NRD responsibility is with the permitting of high capacity wells.  Manure application is usually treated as any commercial fertilizer, which soil sampling and manure analysis should be conducted and handled by NDEE.  

Name	Livestock	Type of Permit	Legal Description	County
Beller Feedlot Inc	cattle	modification	SW 13-20-4	Platte County

 

 

 Description of permit application
Modification on feeding operation.  

 

Rationale: 

# new wells has been reviewed and approved for decommissioning since the last Committee meeting.

Rationale: 

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

Well Owner	Type of Well	Cost Share Estimate	County
Mark Treptow	Irrigation	$892.50	Saunders
Nicholas Lee Schmit	Irrigation	$1,000.00	Butler
Dwaine J. Schmit	Irrigation	$1,000.00	Butler
Gillwell Foundation	Domestic	$744.75	Saunders

 

Rationale:  Nat Oehlrich planted 100 acres of soybeans in the Richland-Schuyler phase area with a PH level on this field at a little over 8. The field is in N1/2 SE1/4 Section 20-17N-2E, just south of Richland.  The motion that was passed at the February Board meeting was to approve a cost-share incentive for iron chlorosis chemistry on soybeans at $15/acre, with the total cost-share fund limited to $3,000 for the current fiscal year.  Staff is working with Nat for a field day during the week of August 15.  

Payment to Nat Oehlrich would be $100 x $15/ acre for $1,500. Attached is an invoice for the cost of the product but it does not include application.  

Staff is in the process of assembling a grant or grants for best management practices and hydrological assessment per last Board meeting. 

Rationale:  Attached is some information provided at the last meeting from the Drought Center. 

Rationale:  As of Wednesday 6/1/2022 with the deadline on 5/26, the NRD has received quotes from 4 companies. 
Bids from the 4 companies are shown (numbers used -160 feet well, 143 feet of casing, and 20 feet of screen)  

• Dvorak Well - North Bend - $12,105
• Downey Drilling Inc - Lexingtion - $20,525
• Layne Christensen Company - Valley - $23,639
• Sargent Drilling - Geneva - $28,619

(Bids attached)

Rationale:  Lower Loup NRD reached out for a joint project to use tracers for determining the age of the groundwater.  The area that is being proposed is the higher nitrate areas from Columbus to Schuyler.  Some other samples could be taken from Schuyler to Fremont.  Tracers that will be used are tritium, tritium-helium and sulfur hexafluoride.   USGS will be conducting the work on this project at a total cost of $404,000.  The NRDs share would be $88,000 if a NET grant is received.  This would be funded over 3 fiscal years with year one budget set at $5,000 for LPN.  Fiscal Year 2, LPN commitments would be $13,500 and FY3 $8,500.  The total commitment would be $44,000.

The purpose of this project:

• Make more informed decisions of groundwater-quality management
• Communication with area residents and producers on the influence of legacy nitrate and its effects on groundwater quality.  
• Methods used in this study may be applied to other areas.  
• Recharge rates on when contaminates can potentially reach the groundwater. 

Attached is the proposal along with a figure showing the results from Lower Loup NRD previous study.  If the Committee would like to recommend the Board to participate in this project, USGS would submit a NET Grant with LPN committing $44,000 for local match.

Rationale:  Staff have met with PMRNRD and LPS on a joint groundwater modeling project.  Other potential financial partners are NeDNR, MUD and Lincoln Water System.  The estimated cost could be around $1,000,000 with a WSF grant paying 60% of the cost. 

Purpose of the GW modeling project:

• To assist in determining the Hydrological Connected Area (10/50 area) for the District by the end of the next 5-year water increment
• To develop a more accurate stream depletion factor, which is used in variance scoring.
• To develop a dashboard for staff to run a model for well permit applications to show the potential effects of additional wells and/or acres.  

Staff has placed $50,000 as a placeholder in the budget.  Paul Woodward (PMRNRD) reached out to JEO to write a WSF grant.  The total cost to write the grant by JEO would be $8,000 with LPN share $2,666.66.  

Staff will provide additional resources and information at the June Water Committee Meeting.  

Rationale:  Staff has been reviewing different options for contacting producers to remind them of deadlines or upcoming events.
Groundwater deadlines:

• Water Use Reports
• Phase Area Reports
• Expired Nitrogen Certification/Chemigation licenses
• Upcoming Nitrogen Certification Classes/ Chemigation Classes. 
• Chemigation Renewals; Chemigation Inspections

There are around 1000 producers involved in the above programs with 50% needing reminders.  As the NRD moves forward on online reporting, producers could get reminders that they can enter their data online.  

Postage for Water Dept mailings in FY 21 was $1,552.31 that was sent out for reminders and reports. This did not include envelopes and stuffing of letters.  Staff also heard from producers that they received their letter 30 days after it was sent.    

Software to set up a mass texting process could range from $450 - $1,000 per year.   People will have the option to opt out and some producers will still get a letter or postcard.  Staff have been asking producers at Certification meetings if they could be contacted by text message, with a majority saying Yes.  

The committee felt that staff should utilize this option for communication with producers. 

Rationale:  As of 5/27/2022, no lakes in the state are on "Health Alert" from NDEE. 

Rationale:  Attached for review is the proposed GW budget.