The North Platte Natural Resources District (NRD) hosted a meeting with surface water representatives on Tuesday, June 9, at the NRD office. Of the twenty-six irrigation districts and canal companies invited, twenty-two were represented at the meeting. The NRD has enjoyed a long-standing and fruitful relationship with surface-water interests, and the meeting included discussion on several topics of importance to both ground and surface water irrigators. 

John Berge, General Manager of the NRD, outlined the NRD's water-management objectives under the Integrated Management Plan (IMP). In addition, Berge outlined new and existing projects aimed at increasing the participation of surface-water users in the NRD's management activities, as well as future cooperative endeavors between the NRD and interested irrigation districts or canal companies to add to the management tools available for meeting IMP obligations. For example, the NRD could enter into long-term agreements with surface water districts, to allow canals to be used for flood control and incidental recharge in times of high river flows, such as that currently seen along the North Platte River valley. The NRD would compensate the irrigation district or canal company for the use of the canals, and the District would receive credit toward IMP obligations from water recharged to the aquifer. Although temporary agreements to divert high flows for recharge were executed in 2011, no such permanent agreement is currently in place, leaving a very cumbersome and time-consuming process when the NRD and irrigation districts need, instead, to be able to act quickly to use canals for flood control. 

In light of the recent infrastructure failure at Brown's Canyon, Berge also expressed the District's desire to aid in the establishment of maintenance committees for other drains across the District. He noted that many of these drains were built over 50 years ago; some have no clear ownership or delineation of responsibility, and, most importantly, many have aging infrastructure. 

The NRD will be hosting a drought tournament later this summer and invited the attendees to participate. The drought tournament will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders from all different sectors of the District. Tournament participants will develop a plan on how to deal with a drought scenario presented to them, and a winner is declared. The NRD hopes the drought tournament will begin a serious discussion on drought planning, which will be incorporated into the District's Hazard Mitigation Plan, and get people to start thinking about it before the next drought hits. 
The NRD plans to hold more of these meetings in the future, to keep communication and ideas flowing between the District and its surface-water constituents. In addition, the NPNRD will follow up with those districts who were unable to attend this initial meeting, to ensure that they receive the information from the meeting and have the opportunity to participate in management projects and planning with the NRD.

For more information about the Summit or any of the North Platte NRD's programs, go to www.npnrd.org or contact the office at (308) 632-2749.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, please contact David Wolf, 632-2749