GRAND ISLAND, Nebraska –  The Central Platte Natural Resources District’s Board of Directors will hold a public hearing at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, July 28, 2022. The Board will act to approve the 2023 proposed budget of expenditures following the hearing at the July Board meeting the same day. The levy will be set at the August board meeting to be held Sept. 1, to accommodate the public notice requirements as the valuations are not available from the counties until Aug. 20. The public levy hearing will be held just prior to the August Board meeting. Central Platte NRD’s Board of Directors meetings are held at 2 p.m. at the NRD office located at 215 Kaufman Avenue in Grand Island, Nebraska.

AGENDA/ACTION ITEMS

-Groundwater Management Plan  The Water Utilization and Water Quality committees will discuss the proposed updates to the NRD’s Ground Water Management Plan including changes to:

• Allow subdistricts 7 and 9to be subdivided based on level of development and hydrology.

• New phase triggers to reflect percentages of maximum acceptable declines.

• Add management regulations to require meters and allocation to address groundwater decline instead of reducing irrigated acres.

-Manager’s Report  Lyndon Vogt, General Manager, will report to the board. 

-Nitrogen Use Efficiency  The Water Quality Committee will discuss a nitrogen use efficiency dashboard developed by NRD staff.

-Schroeder Property The Water Utilization Committee will review management alternatives for a 157-acre property purchased in Dawson County in 2018 with the intention of retiring the pivot and gaining 107 acre-feet (AF) of water.  JEO Consulting was hired to evaluate other potential uses of the property to maximize the hydrologic benefit to meet requirements of the Integrated Management Plan, the Basin-Wide Plan for Integrated Water Resources Management for over-appropriated areas in the Platte River Basin, and Nebraska’s New Depletions Plan.

-Violation Report  Luke Zakrzewski, GIS Image Analyst, will give an update on a Polk County landowner who has had repeat irrigation violations.

-Natural Resources Conservation Service  Joe Krolikowski, District Conservationist, and Carrie Thompson, Resource Conservationist of Lexington, will report.

-Nebraska Natural Resources Commission  Mick Reynolds, Middle Platte Basin Representative, will report.

-Cost-Share  Applications through the Nebraska Soil and Water Conservation and the Central Platte NRD cost-share programs will be considered.