November 8, 2014 at 6:00 PM - Regular Board of Directors Meeting

Rationale: 

NOTE: The agenda is on file at the LPNNRD office and may be changed up to 24 hours prior to the meeting as scheduled.

 

Rationale:  The NACD Annual Meeting will be held February 1-4, 2015 in New Orleans, LA.  Attached find the meeting schedule and registration information.

Rationale:  The Monthly Weaver Conference Call will be held Monday, November 3rd. 

Rationale:  We have not received Bob Weaver's monthly bill, but will have it before Board Meeting. 

Rationale:  The Newman Grove Science Club will give their annual presentation on the quality of water in Shell Creek.

Rationale:  The November Board Meeting will be held at the Newman Grove Community Center Monday, November 10th.  Lunch will be ready at 5:15 p.m. and a presentation on the quality of water in Shell Creek by the Newman Grove students will follow, and Board Meeting with start at 6:00 p.m. 

Rationale:  No new information.

Rationale:  Our Annual Audit is complete as presented and accepted by the Board last month.  The final bill has been received from HBE for $10,145.   

Rationale:  Attached find the notice of action taken by the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission on the Scott Japp compliant.  On October 24th the Commission dismissed the complaint for failure to state a cause of action under the Nebraska Political Accountability and Disclosure Act.

Rationale: 

Rationale: 

Director Bob Meduna passed away on October 29.  The Funeral is scheduled for Wednesday November 5 at 10:00 a.m.

Rationale: 

With the passing of Director Meduna it is proper for the NRD Chair to declare a vacancy in Sub-District 9 and appoint a search committee to bring forth nominations at the next board meeting.

Rationale: 

We are currently without a Board Treasurer.  Chair Hilger has offered to fulfill the duties of Treasurer with assistance from the Vice-Chair and Secretary until a new treasurer is elected in January when our annual elections are conducted.  Discussion can occur at board meeting. 

Rationale:  We have received our dues statement from NACD in the amount of $1,775.

Rationale:  The August Financial Statement was distributed to all Directors.

Rationale: 

The account receivable list was reviewed by the Executive Committee and is attached to their minutes.

Rationale:  Funds were received from NRDF for the Sand Creek Project which were paid to principal on the Union Bank Wanahoo Notes as authorized by the board last month.  With this payment note #1639214 has been retired and Note #1606489 has a balance of $5,563,714.84  At this time we would like to pay the interest on the retired note which is $10,662.86.  We will pay interest as scheduled at the end of the year on the remaining note.  Our budgeted payments for the remainder of this year are $2.5 million from NRDF and $700,000 for the NRD.

Rationale:  No payments or additional activity.

Rationale:  We have organized 6-7 people from the Prague area to cut firewood at Czechland Lake to dwindle the large Elm tree piles down.  Started burning the smaller tree piles at Czechland, in the process a fire started in the engine compartment of the Bobcat.  It is being repaired by Virgl Implement and a claim to insurance has been processed. We completed our fall spraying in various locations and continue to rogue out invasive trees on many locations. Took the 2010 Chevy in for warranty work on the transmission.

Rationale:  The initial order for trees will be approximately 10,200 depending on inventories and availability.

Rationale:  Letters were sent to our partners requesting payment for their share of the $24,753 study cost. We have not had any new information regarding the study from the COE.

Rationale:  M.E. Collins has not started the erosion repair below the Lake Wanahoo dam. Estimated time table is to start the week of November 3, but have it completed before mid-November.

Rationale:  Letters were sent to the list of cooperators explaining the changes in the program, the lower budget amount and the priorities.  We have not had any response.

Rationale:  This month we've been running ads on the Wanahoo detour,  fall fertilizer restrictions and the SkyTEM helicopter flights.

Rationale:  This month we've been running ads on the Wanahoo detour and fall fertilizer restrictions.

Rationale:  The fall issue of the Viaduct was distributed in area papers and electronically the first week of October.

Rationale:  We worked with Erika Hill (NARD) and Katie Cameron (ENWRA) to coordinate publicity about the SkyTEM helicopter flights. Several newspapers, radio stations and TV stations ran stories on the flights. 

Rationale:  Thompson and Miyoshi attended a workshop at USACE on using social media to promote emergency awareness and preparedness. The workshop had several good ideas for tying social media campaigns to specific events/dates that we will incorporate into our future efforts. 

Rationale:  The East Central Land Judging Contest was held on October 8 at Homestead Lake. 168 students from 11 schools participated, with teams from Milford, Norris, East Butler and Raymond Central qualifying for state. Milford placed second at state and qualified for national competition.

While our numbers were similar to the past few years, we had several new schools attend this year, and statewide there were a record number of contestants and teams.  

Rationale:  We received a sponsorship request from the Nebraska Science Bowls, scheduled for February 2015. (see attachment). We have donated $250 to this event in past years. 

Rationale:  A new vulnerability has been discovered in older versions of the "Secure Sockets Layer" protocol that's used to secure online transactions. Our website is not vulnerable to this security flaw, but the web server may need to be upgraded to a newer version of Windows in the near future, depending on changes to our payment processor's requirements.

Rationale:  After the last board meeting, we contacted our ISP to discuss our Internet speed. Our speeds during regular office hours have been very good since they installed a point-to-point antenna for us, but during the board meeting our speeds got progressively slower as the night went on.

After looking into it, they discovered that their access point at Mead (where our service comes from) was being overloaded at night, as people got home from work and started using the Internet. They doubled the bandwidth to that access point to alleviate this problem, and we will have the president of the company "on call" during our next board meeting at the office so that they can respond in real-time if we experience any speed issues. 

Rationale:  Coliform samples will be taken on October 29th, sample results should be known by board meeting.  

Staff collected samples for testing of Trihalomethane and Haloacetic Acid.  These are by-products from the breakdown of chlorine.  Results for both the trihalomethane and haloacetic acid have shown levels well below the MCL. 

Staff completed some one-call request for the Bruno line this month.

Rationale: 

Coliform samples will be taken on October 29th and sample results should be known by board meeting.

Six Colon customers have been sent disconnection notices and staff will be visiting these people closer to the 10th of the month.

Staff will be attending the next Village of Colon board meeting to discuss water and sewer concerns.  That meeting is scheduled for November 5th at 6:00 pm

Rationale:  Staff has received an update and the draft of this study is nearly complete.  JEO will be meeting with Brainard and Dwight before December to go over the draft.  A possible well field may have been located with some early favorable sampling results.  JEO will forward us the draft report once completed.  

Rationale: 

• Game and Parks informed staff that the date to spend the $20,000 grant for the Czechland project has been moved forward to December 31st. 2014.     

Rationale:  DNR letter is attached about dates for the Revised Rules for Title 457 to determine if a Basin is Fully Appropriated.

Rationale:  All letters have been sent to applicants in the Hydrologically Connected Area (HCA) and Non-Hydrologically Connected Area (NHCA).

Rationale:  One new well permit has been reviewed and approved by Schomer.

Rationale:  Staff spoke with Mr. Stork and Mr. Kremlacek on Thursday October 16th.  Both parties agreed to come in and meet with staff on Wednesday October 22nd.  However, on Monday October 20th, Mr. Kremlacek spoke with Schomer and said that he would not be coming to the meeting due to harvest.  He is willing to discuss the situation, but would prefer doing it at a later date.

Jon Tank and Jeff Stork attended the Water Committee meeting and presented their side of the well variance request.  Mr. Kremlacek was not present due to harvest, but he owns the domestic well that is 35 feet from the proposed irrigation well for Mr. Stork.  A second meeting will try to be scheduled on November 24, 2014 at 4:00 pm., which is one hour before the next Water Committee meeting.

Rationale:  No updates.

Rationale:  No updates.

Rationale:  Wells Permits Approved: 1

Landowner	Number of Wells	Number of New Irrigated Acres	Type of Well	County	Subarea
Robert Ladenburger	1	80	Irrigation - New	Saunders	Morse Bluff

The total number of approved permits for 2014 is 65.

Location of Approved Well Permits for 2014:  Correct as of 10/28/2014

County	Irrigation - New	Irrigation - Replacement	Stock	Commercial	Municipal	Other	Total
Butler	1	5	0	0	0	0	6
Colfax	1	2	0	0	0	0	3
Dodge	5	8	0	1	0	1	15
Boone	5	1	0	0	0	0	6
Madison	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
Platte	4	5	1	0	0	1	11
Saunders	13	7	0	0	0	3	23
Total	30	28	1	1	0	5	65

Rationale:  Mr. & Mrs. Stock have applied for a new supplemental well in S12-T19N-R3W Middle Shell Creek subarea of Platte County.  This is not in the Platte - Colfax SQS area.  The ground is currently being serviced by well G-145120 which was permitted by the LPNNRD in 2006 to irrigate 260 acres.  Now they would like to irrigate 80 of those acres with a separate well.  The test hole is attached, as well as a map of the area.

Rationale:  At the invitation of Bob Hilger and Larry Angle, Paul Tipling of McCrometer and Great Plains Meter, gave a presentation on the installation, maintenance, and cost of their flow meters.  He mentioned that while Upper Big Blue NRD (UBBNRD) is not cost sharing with producers on the initial cost of the flow meter it is looking at cost sharing on its maintenance (see attached information).  He also mentioned that the UBBNRD maintenance program is looking to contract this out rather than have NRD staff perform this function.  LPNNRD staff will contact UBBNRD for more details.

We have received a letter from NET outlining the timeline for our grant request for flow meters in the SQS.  Awards will be announced on February 12, 2015 with a public hearing on April 2, 2015.  Final awards will be announced after the April 2, 2015 date.  Our application was one of 122 submitted, with nearly $60 million in funds requested.

Well owners are to have flow meters installed by May 1, 2015 in both SQS areas.  Allocation in the Butler-Saunders SQS is to start in 2015, but not until 2016 for the Platte-Colfax SQS area.  Discussion followed that producers in both SQS areas would only know if cost share funds would be available for flow meters for just one month before the May 1st installation deadline.  

Rationale:  Staff plan to meet with Extension in mid to late November to discuss these special classes.  Flow meters and their proper installation will be a major focus of these classes.  Also on the agenda is use of water mark sensors, and our rules covering this area.

Rationale:  The last meeting of the LPRBC Technical Committee was held on October 28, 2014 at the Lower Loup NRD in Ord, NE.  The main discussion focused on Action Items for the goals and objectives.  Basin wide Water Banking was briefly discussed, but will be on our agenda for the December 2, 2014 meeting in Norfolk.

Rationale: 

The last Stakeholder meeting was held on October 7, 2014 at the LPNNRD office.  We had good attendance and discussion on the Goals and Objectives.  A draft copy of the Water Balance Study was forwarded to NRD staff for review.  The Water Inventory Study will not be ready until later this fall.

The next Coordination meeting will be held on November 20, 2014 at 10:00 am at Olsson's new office near the Lincoln Arena. 

The NRD has received an Invoice for $8,751.28 from Olsson Assoc. for services rendered through October 4, 2014 (see attached invoice).

Rationale:  366 kits have been requested and sent (one of these was mailed today).  The results from 355 of these kits have been received from HHS/Lincoln with a range of 0.00 to 101.0 ppm.

Rationale: 

The remaining kit (in bold text in the table below) has been used and results sent to the landowner.  This cost-share program in available only in the Phase 2 areas.

Rationale:  All 50% cost share payments from cooperating producers have been received.

Rationale: 

2014 is the twelfth year of this Phase 2 Area.  106 producer sample results have been received (range of 0.00 to 22.3 ppm).

Year	Nitrate-nitrogen Range	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 0 to 8.0 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 8.01 to 10.00 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen greater than 10 ppm
2004	0 to 25 ppm	46.3% (44 of 95)	8.4% (8 of 95)	45.3% (43 of 95)
2005	0 to 25 ppm	47% (44 of 94)	15% (14 of 94)	38% (36 of 94)
2006	0 to 24 ppm	41% (29 of 71)	14% (10 of 71)	45% (32 of 71)
2007	0 to 31 ppm	48% (48 of 100)	9% (9 of 100)	43% (43 of 100)
2008	0 to 28 ppm	53.75% (43 of 80)	7.5% (6 of 80)	38.75% (31 of 80)
2009	0 to 22 ppm	45.5% (41 of 90)	15.5% (14 of 90)	39% (35 of 90)
2010	0 to 35.7 ppm	48.65% (54 of 111)	11.71% (13 of 111)	39.64% (44 of 111)
2011	0 to 26.6 ppm	51% (56 of 110)	6% (7 of 110)	43% (47 of 110)
2012	0 to 28.9 ppm	57% (61 of 107)	9% (10 of 107)	34% (36 of 107)
2013	0 to 25.8 ppm	50% (53 of 107)	9% (10 of 107)	41% (44 of 107)
2014	0 to 22.3 ppm	51% (54 of 106)	13% (14 of 106)	36% (38 of 106)

 

Rationale: 

2014 is the eleventh year of this Phase 2 Area.  249 producer sample results have been received (range of 0.00 to 101.0).

 

Year	Nitrate-nitrogen Range	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 0 to 8.0 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 8.01 to 10.00 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen greater than 10 ppm
2004	0 to 47 ppm	30% (42 of 139)	10% (14 of 139)	60% (83 of 139)
2005	0 to 120 ppm	31.3% (74 of 236)	10.2% (24 of 236)	58.5% (138 of 236)
2006	0 to 53 ppm	28% (50 of 181)	14% (26 of 181)	58% (105 of 181)
2007	0 to 99 ppm	32% (75 of 231)	10% (22 of 231)	58% (134 of 227)
2008	0 to 46 ppm	28% (53 of 190)	12% (23 of 190)	60% (114 of 190)
2009	0 to 57 ppm	33% (72 of 216)	6% (13 of 216)	61% (131 of 216)
2010	0 to 57.5 ppm	31% (70 of 229)	7% (15 of 229)	62% (142 of 229)
2011	0 to 65.8 ppm	28% (67 of 241)	9% (21 of 241)	63% (153 of 241)
2012	0 to 52.6 ppm	29% (70 of 241)	9% (21 of 241)	62% (150 of 241)
2013	0 to 94.0 ppm	25% (63 of 252)	9% (23 of 252)	66% (166 of 252)
2014	0 to 101.0 ppm	27.3% (68 of 249)	8.4% (21 of 249)	64.3% (160 of 249)

 

Rationale:  No on-line tests have been completed since the last committee meeting.

Rationale:  Staff plan to meet with County Extension personnel in mid to late November to discuss next year's NRD Operator Certification Classes.  Another topic will be operator certification with producers in the SQS subareas that will focus on water quantity.

Rationale: 

• Saunders County Update:  With harvest in full swing we've only had a couple turned in since the last Water Committee.  Entering these into the GIS and recording well modifications for DNR has been top priority since Dodge County creation wrapped up.
• Dodge County Update:  Dodge County is ready to send.  There are right at 680, which is less than anticipated.  They’ll be sent out in one mailing after Harvest.  Poole is anticipating that being late in the second week of November.  Because of various holidays occurring around the time of the mailing, the due date will be February 1, 2015.  This should give people plenty of time to take care of any after harvest business and family commitments.

Rationale: 

A total of 12 inspections need to be done before the end of the year or these permits will lapse.  These producers have been notified and asked to contact the NRD if they wish their wells inspected.  

Rationale:  The LPNNRD has received no new livestock permit applications from DEQ since the last Water Committee meeting.

Rationale:  One new well has been reviewed and approved by Gottschalk for decommissioning since the last Committee meeting.

 

Rationale:  No new wells have been plugged, reviewed, or ready for cost share payment approval by the Board for this month.

Rationale:  No new update.  The next training class of the MODFLOW model and GIS interface is scheduled for December 4 & 5, 2014 in Ord at the LLNRD.

Rationale: 

• NRD staff drove the proposed ENWRA flight lines in early October looking for power lines, pipe lines, cable and telephone lines or other potential electronic signals that could affect the AEM signal.
• The northern portion of the ENWRA AEM flights were completed by mid-October.  Initial data showed signal penetration to a depth of 800 ft. and more.  Data inversion and coupling this information with test hole data are the next steps, but they should have the preliminary data by the time of the NARD Conference in late January.  It is hoped that this could be one of the sessions at the Conference.
• Several of the AEM flights used the Fremont airport as a base for operations.
  
  

Rationale: 

Staff began collecting the Fall GWEL readings on October 23rd. and readings from the Uplands sites have been completed.  Dustin Divis, a senior at David City High School, accompanied Oaklund Tuesday October 28th in the afternoon to learn about our data loggers and GWEL sites near David City.  Divis did “hands on” with both monitoring wells and readings at well sites.  Staff started GWEL readings on the Todd Valley sites on October 29th. and Platte Valley and then Shell Creek sites will follow.  The Wann Basin subarea (multi-agencies) collection of readings is scheduled for Thursday, October 30th.

Rationale: 

Staff continued its water sampling of our monitoring wells in October.   Sixteen of these have now been sampled for nitrates, pesticides, and major ions.

Rationale: 
The next Public meeting will be November 12, 2014 at the Yutan VFW County Club.  The time will be 4:30 to 7:30 pm.  US Army Corps of Engineers personnel will be on hand to answer any questions.

Rationale:  The 2015 GMDA Annual Conference will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona on January 6-8, 2015.  The main focus will be on the Central Arizona Project which provides water for agriculture, industrial, and municipal use.

Rationale:  Flow Meters:     50%
  James Christensen Platte Co. $ 625.00
  Mary Ann Shuey Rev. Trust. Butler $ 625.00

* Both of these applications were initially applied for during the 11 days between last months Projects Committee and Board meeting.  Recommending to approve these final two Flow meter applications through our SWCP program.

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Rationale:  Wahoo Creek - Lands for Conservation Approvals: (Handout)
Acres payments: $   69,841.20 
25% C/S payments: $   48,628.41
    TOTAL: $ 118,469.61

Wahoo Creek Watershed BMP's C/S:
10% C/S payments: $   83,050.12

Wahoo Creek Watershed BMP's Coordinating with prior General EQIP:
25% C/S payments $   28,960.96

TOTAL WAHOO CREEK WATERSHED GRANT APPROVALS: $ 230,480.69

Rationale: 

NDEQ has notified us that they have awarded $50,000 for the next Shell Creek Phase.  We applied for $200,000. The next step will be to sort out what and how these funds can be used as we develop a Project Implementation Plan with NDEQ. 

Rationale:  NDEQ will complete their review of the draft plan by December 1st and will then send it to EPA for comments. 

Rationale:  Meghan's Update is attached. As presented last month, the LPRCA Summit will be held November 6th.  To date, it appears that no Directors from LPNNRD have signed up, so we are highly recommending that you consider attending this event if at all possible.  

Rationale:  The paving of old Highway 30 is taking place this week.  The Contractor continues to move fill in preparing for topsoiling and seeding.  The completion date has now been moved to November 12th due to rain delays.  

Rationale:  JEO met with us on October 9th to update us on Woodcliff's Riverbank stabilization project and cost estimate as attached. JEO is exploring possible grant assistance to help with this project.  No formal assistance request has been received at this time. 

Rationale:  We have received a invoice from Olsson Associates for instrument monitoring at Lake Wanahoo.  This stems from a previously Board approved agreement with Olsson's . 

Rationale:  The Saunders County Visitors Fund has approved our request to assist with funding for paving the entrance to Lake Wanahoo.  They have committed $8,000 to this project, a letter of acceptance will be delivered.  

Rationale:  Attached find bid abstracts for Segment 5 on the Western Sarpy Clear Creek Project.  The low bidder ($4,158,750) is Harding Enterprises LLC which is under the government estimate by about $200,000.

Rationale:  Easements are being prepared by Legal Counsel for all four properties for the WS/CC Project. 

Rationale:  A motion is needed to reimburse the Village of Bruno for the yearly USDA RD loan payment per our agreement with the Village of Bruno in the amount of $8,690. 

Rationale: 

14-S&D-1    Steven & Raleen Vrana     Septic System inspection & upgrade    $3,300.00

Rationale: 

14-S-32                 Mervin Boschult Trust    Flow Meter        $ 606.63

Rationale: 

NOTE: The agenda is on file at the LPNNRD office and may be changed up to 24 hours prior to the meeting as scheduled.