Big Neb. reservoir still only 33 percent full
Posted: Thursday, September 04, 2008
HOLDREGE, Neb. (AP) -- Despite a relatively good irrigation season in 2008, farmers will have to plan on no more than 6.7 inches of water from Lake McConaughy next year.
Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District directors have voted to maintain the 2008 limit in 2009, which will be the fifth consecutive year of cutbacks.
Irrigators normally get 18 inches a year.
In 2005, the district delivered 6.7 inches per acre to irrigators; in 2006, 8.4 inches; 2007, 6.7 inches; 2008, 6.7 inches; and the same is now planned for 2009, 6.7 inches.
District General Manager Don Kraus said some irrigators want to raise the allocation to 8.4 inches, but the directors decided to remain cautious despite some welcome news about the reservoir's current state.
Directors were told at their meeting Tuesday that the lake is 8 feet higher than a year ago.
But the lake -- Nebraska's largest -- is still only 33 percent full.
It can hold 1.7 million acre-feet of water. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre of land with a foot of water, or enough to meet the yearly residential needs of an average family of four.
Civil engineer Cory Steinke told the board that this year's higher-than-average snowpack runoff from the North Platte basin isn't a sure thing next year.
Most of the water that fills the reservoir takes an indirect route from the Wyoming mountains in the form of "return flows" -- groundwater that seeps into the river and irrigation runoff from Panhandle farm fields.
A full supply of North Platte irrigation water to the Panhandle reduces groundwater consumption and increases irrigation runoff into the river as it heads to McConaughy.
In addition, Steinke said, a 4-inch August rain in the Scottsbluff area gave the river a flow boost.
Several such good years are necessary to refill McConaughy, which has been drained by years of drought and less snowpack runoff.
In June, McConaughy was at 46 percent of capacity, up from 39 percent last year and a steep increase from 2004. In September of that year the state's largest reservoir was at less than 20 percent of capacity, its lowest level since being built in the 1940s.
Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District directors have voted to maintain the 2008 limit in 2009, which will be the fifth consecutive year of cutbacks.
Irrigators normally get 18 inches a year.
In 2005, the district delivered 6.7 inches per acre to irrigators; in 2006, 8.4 inches; 2007, 6.7 inches; 2008, 6.7 inches; and the same is now planned for 2009, 6.7 inches.
District General Manager Don Kraus said some irrigators want to raise the allocation to 8.4 inches, but the directors decided to remain cautious despite some welcome news about the reservoir's current state.
Directors were told at their meeting Tuesday that the lake is 8 feet higher than a year ago.
But the lake -- Nebraska's largest -- is still only 33 percent full.
It can hold 1.7 million acre-feet of water. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre of land with a foot of water, or enough to meet the yearly residential needs of an average family of four.
Civil engineer Cory Steinke told the board that this year's higher-than-average snowpack runoff from the North Platte basin isn't a sure thing next year.
Most of the water that fills the reservoir takes an indirect route from the Wyoming mountains in the form of "return flows" -- groundwater that seeps into the river and irrigation runoff from Panhandle farm fields.
A full supply of North Platte irrigation water to the Panhandle reduces groundwater consumption and increases irrigation runoff into the river as it heads to McConaughy.
In addition, Steinke said, a 4-inch August rain in the Scottsbluff area gave the river a flow boost.
Several such good years are necessary to refill McConaughy, which has been drained by years of drought and less snowpack runoff.
In June, McConaughy was at 46 percent of capacity, up from 39 percent last year and a steep increase from 2004. In September of that year the state's largest reservoir was at less than 20 percent of capacity, its lowest level since being built in the 1940s.
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