Want to Sell or Lease Irrigation Water for Next Year?

(GRAND ISLAND, NE)- The Central Platte Natural Resources District (CPNRD) has started the pre-approval process for the Groundwater Exchange Program, which provides a way for producers to buy or sell water use for the upcoming irrigation season. During the pre-approval process, staff verifies that all participants are in compliance with CPNRD’s Rules and Regulations, document whether the participant is acting as a buyer or seller, the location and amount of water use, and whether the buyers want to purchase water for irrigation or for streamflow. Those interested in participating must be pre-approved by November 23, 2016.

The online bid window for those pre-approved will be open from December 1 through December 9, 2016.  Buyers and sellers will go online to the CPNRD Exchange website with the personal ID that staff has provided to them.  Sellers will enter the amount that they would like to receive for their water use, and buyers will enter how much they are willing to pay.

Central Platte NRD and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources have partnered in the financial cost to develop an algorithm that selects the best matches based on information that each seller and buyer enters- such as the price, location of water, and the depletion to the river.  The program then generates a report of all the matched exchanges.  The NRD’s Rules and Regulations regarding the transfers of groundwater irrigated acres are built into the computer program. Bids are based on acres, consumptive use, and streamflow depletion to the Platte River.

The National Economic Research Associates (NERA) is the consulting firm who developed the computer program, accepts the bids, and provides CPNRD with the results.   For more information, contact CPNRD at (308) 385-6282 or visit www.market4water.com.

UPCOMING BOARD MEETING 

The CPNRD board of directors will meet on Thursday, October 27, 2016.  The board will discuss and take possible action on a school land easement request.  The board postponed action on the request from the Nebraska Board of Educational Lands and Funds at their September meeting; in which CPNRD would hold a conservation easement to implement a wetland in Buffalo County. Westervelt Ecological Services, the entity who would implement the wetland, will meet with the Water Resources Committee prior to the October board meeting.

Duane Woodward, CPNRD hydrologist, will give an update to the board on the recent calibration work for the Platte River Cooperative Hydrology Study.  The Study is a cooperative effort to improve the understanding of the hydrological and geological conditions in the Platte Basin in Nebraska upstream of Columbus, Nebraska. 

A group of Nebraska interests joined together in 1997 as sponsors and partners to develop scientifically supportable hydrologic databases, analyses, and modeling. The Study is continually updated and provides information which:

Assists Nebraska to meet obligation under a separate three-state Cooperative Agreement (CA).
Assists Nebraska's Natural Resources Districts along the Platte River in providing appropriate regulation and management.
Provides Nebraskans with a basis to develop policy and procedures related to groundwater and surface water.
Helps Nebraskans analyze proposed activities of the CA and/or other programs in Nebraska.

For more information on COHYST, visit http://cohyst.dnr.ne.gov.

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  [CPNRD Logosm]

  Marcia Lee
  Information/Education Specialist

  Central Platte Natural Resources District
  215 Kaufman Ave  Grand Island NE 68803
  Tel: (308) 385-6282  www.cpnrd.org

  Protecting Lives • Protecting Property • Protecting the Future