LINCOLN (NE) August19, 2015 - A budget approved Wednesday by the Lower Platte South Natural Resources District Board of Directors allows the NRD to move forward with repairs of projects damaged by spring storms. A twelve-mile portion of the Homestead Recreational Trail managed by the NRD, south of Saltillo Road, near 25th Street, has been closed since early May and will remain closed until repairs to bridges and the trail surface are completed ($235,000). Two miles of the NRD's MoPac East Trail, northeast of Elmwood are still closed due to bridge damage ($150,000) and the NRD has assessed damages to Salt Creek ($250,000) and Antelope Creek ($692,000) projects, along with damage to several of its flood control dams ($120,000), all totaling $1.5 million.

The approved Fiscal Year 2016 Budget totals $25,247,907, about $3.3 million less than the NRD's first budget draft earlier this year. Some new programs were cut or deferred in order to balance expenditures with revenues and to accommodate the storm damage repairs. Even with the cuts, the property tax requirement is 3% more than in the previous budget, however, due to an overall increase in property valuations in the District, the NRD's tax levy is expected to still decrease from last year. The NRD has submitted its storm damage repair cost estimates to FEMA for possible reimbursement, but the budget does not assume that reimbursement.

The NRD, with the help of engineering consultant JEO, will continue to assess needs for upgrading structures along Lincoln's Salt Creek Levee, prioritize those projects and develop designs and cost estimates ($757,600). The process, called a System Wide Improvement Framework Plan overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), is meant to keep the more-than-50-year-old Salt Creek Levee reliable in protecting a large part of the city from flooding. These projects are in addition to routine operation and maintenance of the levee and are expected to take several years to complete.

A feasibility study by the Corps, the City of Lincoln and the NRD ($390,000) is evaluating ways to reduce flooding in Lincoln's Deadman's Run Watershed. Input has been gathered at two public meetings, so far, and the Corps hopes to have a specific proposal for better protecting lives and property in the watershed by next spring.

In Waverly, the NRD is helping the City to develop a dry dam designed to protect a large part of the city from flooding. Design work ($267,952) is in progress and land rights negotiations ($450,495) could also begin in FY 2016. The project comes under the NRD's Community Assistance Program, which also includes a Platte River bank stabilization project at Cedar Creek ($485,000) the design of a trail and bridge in Weeping Water ($36,200) and a floodplain study that includes downtown Louisville ($12,480).

The construction of Havlat Dam ($415,000), a road structure dam south of Pleasant Dale, in Seward County, will improve flood control in that area. The budget also includes ($420,000) for the design and construction of Piening flood control dam, along Highway 34 at the Lancaster-Seward county line.

The FY 2016 Budget also provides for engineering, design and construction work at Marsh Wren, an NRD saline wetland restoration project, southeast of Interstate 80 and 27th Street, in Lincoln ($333,500). After studying the hydrology and geology of the area and assessing vegetation and wildlife, the NRD hopes to make Marsh Wren another of several successful projects to restore rare saline wetlands.

Through the Lower Platte River Corridor Alliance, the NRD is one of several entities planning continued support for the nearly-completed Western Sarpy/Clear Creek levee project to better protect about 18,000 acres of farm land and the Lincoln and Omaha drinking water systems from Platte River flooding. The District will continue participation in an ice jam agreement with other entities and studies of invasive and endangered species.

Planned activities related to the NRD's Integrated Management Plan for surface water and ground water, adopted in 2014, include an inventory of available water and studies of water supplies and uses in the District. The NRD's participation in the Lower Platte River Basin Coalition, a group of central and eastern Nebraska NRDs and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, will also continue. The coalition helps member NRDs better manage water resources in their individual districts by monitoring water supply and use on a more regional scale.

The budget also sets aside funds for NRD cost-sharing ($800,000) to help landowners install Best Management Practices, such as terraces that decrease soil erosion, improve water quality downstream and help to manage stormwater.

Another segment of the Salt Creek Levee Trail ($350,000), in Lincoln, from 14th Street to Cornhusker Highway is in the budget. The new segment will be an extension of a trail segment that recently opened between 14th Street and Haymarket Park.

Other important NRD activities provided for in the budget include: 

• continuing to help the communities of Valparaiso, Hickman, Pleasant Dale, Davey, Union, Elmwood, Weeping Water/Otoe RWD #3 and the Lower Salt Creek area from Waverly to Ashland reduce elevated nitrate levels in ground water

• administering allocations, rules and regulations in the Dwight-Valparaiso-Brainard Special Ground Water Management Area 

• implementation of a new mobile ground water data system

• a vadose zone monitoring program (the vadose zone is the underground area between the root zone and ground water)

• operating and maintaining 180 dams throughout the District 

• continuing to work with the Nebraska Department of Roads and Cass County to extend the MoPac East Trail to the Lied Platte River Bridge at South Bend

• construction of a trail underpass at Rosa Parks Way and Salt Creek, in Lincoln

• continued participation in a sandbar study along the Platte River

• and continued efforts to keep District residents informed about NRD conservation programs and how they can help.

The NRD's fiscal year begins on July first and development of the annual budget starts in April, with multiple opportunities for public input throughout the process. A link to the complete budget is available at lpsnrd.org.