Panel says Nebraska water problems will take years to resolve

The fact that Nebraska law says the ground water belongs to the public creates problems in determining the rights to that water, the panelists seemed to agree. Without defined ownership, anyone who drills a well has the right to use as much water as he desires and without regard to the effects it may have on his neighbor’s well. That situation is causing growing concerns, particularly during a period of drought like western Nebraska is experiencing.

The panelists said the Legislature is unlikely to tackle the problem, that most of the Natural Resources Districts around the state have been slow to act and it will probably take numerous courts cases to bring results.

Even one of the attorneys on the panel, Tom Oliver of Bridgeport, said litigation is a poor way to solve problems. Despite concerns that both ground water and surface water are vanishing, particularly in parts of western Nebraska, Oliver said not many regulations are now in place to allocate or limit ground water usage, and its overuse is causing surface water to disappear in several areas.

Oliver said the future is bleak for surface water uses because ground water users can drill wells and use the water that should be flowing in the stream. He was the attorney that argued the Spear T Ranch case from Morrill County before the Nebraska Supreme Court. The ruling said Spear T could seek compensation from ground water users for pumping Pumpkin Creek dry.

Another panelist, Steve Sibray, a ground water geologist from Scottsbluff, suggested three possible solutions. He listed them as 1, establishment of a strong authoritarian bureaucracy in Lincoln that would decide every issue; 2, privatization of water so it could be bought and sold; and 3, effective action by NRDs or similar agencies to decide situations locally.

“Everybody wants free water and open access to it, but it’s a limited resource,” Sibray stated. “The present system won’t work forever.”

Jordan Ball, the Sidney city attorney, said economic growth will be impossible for western Nebraska communities if they are not allowed to increase their water usage. He said that while agriculture is critically important to western Nebraska, too many center pivot irrigation wells have been drilled, causing rivers and streams to dry up in some cases and also causing a sharp decline in numerous aquifers.

Ball also said he doesn’t expect the Legislature to solve the state’s water because senators seeking re-election aren’t apt to “come to grips with the problem.”

Rex Amack, director of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, noted that Nebraska has more miles of rivers and streams than any state except Alaska. He said it is incomprehensible to him that society will stand and watch while Nebraska’s water issues are being decided by the courts during the next 20 or so years, as it was suggested it may take by Oliver and others on the panel.

Amack added that it’s interesting to him that there are more boats registered in Nebraska than ever before, at a time when the state’s surface acres of water are shrinking.

One of the ranchers on the panel, Bruce Troester of Marsland, said three months of rain would solve many of the problems, at least for now. He also noted that western Nebraska certainly doesn’t want to copy northern Texas and pump its share of the Ogallala Aquifer dry. But, he said, Box Butte County, seems to be headed in that director

The Upper Niobrara-White NRD, which covers the four-county area in extreme northwest Nebraska, reports that the water table in much of Box Butte County, where there are 1,400 registered wells, has dropped about a foot a year the past 40 years.

Sibray said that every aquifer that is not near a river or stream in western Nebraska is declining.

A second farmer/rancher on the panel, Terry Terrell of the Mirage Flats south of Hay Springs, pointed out that there’s a vast difference in the water situation across the state. While much of the Panhandle is experiencing a decline in both surface and ground water, he called the Sandhills “a fountain” and added that irrigation wells can still be drilled in much of eastern Nebraska without lowering the water table or the surface flows.

“What’s good for one area’s not necessarily good for another area,” Terrell commented. He also noted that a lot of water that could be used by agriculture or municipalities is leaves the state.

Oliver said the proliferation of irrigation wells has drastically impacted western Nebraska’s rivers and streams, and that the Legislature has “dropped the ball” by not determining who has rights to the water and setting priorities.

He predicted lots of litigation will occur “because farmers and ranchers and municipalities don’t know where they stand. Now it’s an every man for himself situation.”

Oliver added, “We’ll have a really dry state if appropriate action isn’t taken.”

Sibray said the current drought will help solve the state’s problem in the long run because somebody will eventually have to take action. He called water “a resource owned by nobody,” and advocated a system of well-defined rights. An employee of the Conservation and Survey Division of the University of Nebraska School of Natural Resources, Sibray said every one, not just farmers, ranchers and government officials need to become aware of the problem and get involved.

He said laws that give ownership of ground water would give irrigators the opportunity to sell the water their wells pump and possibly make more money.

Both Ball and Oliver said the NRDs they are familiar with have been ineffective in solving water problems. Ball noted that most of the NRD board members are ground water irrigators who protect their own rights, and pointed out that 38 of the 49 members of the Nebraska Water Policy Task Force appointed by Gov. Johanns have irrigation interests.

Oliver said water issues are “too political” to be left up to local control.

A member of the audience, Rex Nielsen of Gering, co-owner of the Spear T Ranch that went to court to regain its surface water rights, said “a bad situation became a disaster” in Pumpkin Creek when the North Platte NRD said it might set up a control district because more wells were drilled and more acres placed under irrigation before action was taken.

“The new wells dried up the old wells, or made them uneconomical to pump,” Nielsen said.

The panel discussion on water availability wrapped up the Distinguished Speakers Series at Chadron State for the 2004-05 school year. Dr. Mike Leite, associate professor of earth science at CSC, was the moderator.