October 1, 2020 at 7:30 AM - Water Committee Meeting

Rationale:  The District received 17 applications for new irrigated acres in the Hydrologically Connected Area. All applications listed on the attached table meet the 300 point ranking threshold. The 17 applications total 1,111 acres and account for 145.447 acre feet of new depletions.

Staff showed the list to the Committee and didn't see an issue with any of the variances.  

Rationale:  One application was received prior to the August 15th deadline but was mixed in to the HCA applications. Randall Rasmussen has applied for a 17 acre expansion in the SE1/4SW1/4 S16-16-8E, Saunders County. This application had a ranking score of 370, and a total depletion of 3.825 acre feet.

Rationale:  Attached are the list of conditions for Roger Harders Variance approval.  Staff sent this to Roger on September 10.  Staff also had Katie review this area for thoughts on monitoring well location.  That information is also attached.    

Rationale:  Hollst Bros. have applied for an expansion of 62.5 acres from an existing well in S30-T15N-R9E, Saunders County, Restricted Development Area.Well G-069761 currently irrigates 200.23 acres and pumps out of the dakota aquifer which underlies the quaternary formation.

This application would fall under GWMA Rules & Regulations Section P Rule #1: "Rule 1: The District will allow expansion of new acres but does not allow for any more consumptive use in the RDA.  Any development of new irrigated acres in the RDA shall be offset with an equal number of irrigated acres retired within the same aquifer subarea and shall be considered a transfer. The RDA areas within Lower Platte North NRD are on file in the District office and shown on Exhibit A."

With a rolling allocation placed on the well of 27 acre inches, the additional 62.5 acres would set the rolling three year allocation at 20.58 acre inches. 

Rationale: 

Wells Permits Approved: #

Landowner	Number of Wells	Number of New Irrigated Acres	Type of Well	County	Subarea

 

 

 

 

 

 

The total number of approved permits for 2020 is #

Location of Approved Well Permits for 2020:  Correct as of ####

County	Irrigation - New	Irrigation - Replacement	Stock	Commercial	Municipal	Other	Total
Butler
Colfax
Dodge
Boone
Madison
Platte
Saunders
Total

 

Rationale:  312 kits have been sent out.

Rationale:  Attached is an article on mechanical vs electronic meters along with LPN approved meters as of 11/11/2018. 

Does the Committee want to revise the approved flow meter list?  

Committee and staff discussed the options and viewed the current list.  The plan is to invite Lindsay Corp. to a Committee Meeting to discuss the meters they are offering.  More discussion will continue throughout the fall and winter before a final list is updated.  

Rationale: 

2020 is the eighteenth year for this Phase 2 Area. (In 2015 this area was reduced from 32 sections to 21 sections.)

a

Year	Nitrate-nitrogen Range	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 0 to 8.0 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 8.01 to 10.00 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 10.01 to 15 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen greater than 15 ppm
2004	0 to 25 ppm	46.3% (44 of 95)	8.4% (8 of 95)	45.3% (43 of 95)
2005	0 to 25 ppm	47% (44 of 94)	15% (14 of 94)	38% (36 of 94)
2006	0 to 24 ppm	41% (29 of 71)	14% (10 of 71)	45% (32 of 71)
2007	0 to 31 ppm	48% (48 of 100)	9% (9 of 100)	43% (43 of 100)
2008	0 to 28 ppm	53.75% (43 of 80)	7.5% (6 of 80)	38.75% (31 of 80)
2009	0 to 22 ppm	45.5% (41 of 90)	15.5% (14 of 90)	39% (35 of 90)
2010	0 to 35.7 ppm	48.65% (54 of 111)	11.71% (13 of 111)	39.64% (44 of 111)
2011	0 to 26.6 ppm	51% (56 of 110)	6% (7 of 110)	43% (47 of 110)
2012	0 to 28.9 ppm	57% (61 of 107)	9% (10 of 107)	34% (36 of 107)
2013	0 to 25.8 ppm	50% (53 of 107)	9% (10 of 107)	41% (44 of 107)
2014	0 to 22.3 ppm	51% (55 of 108)	13% (14 of 108)	36% (39 of 108)
2015	0 to 32.3 ppm	43% (31 of 72)	8% (6 of 72)	49% (35 of 72)
2016	0 to 35.1 ppm	34% (25 of 74)	11% (8 of 74)	55% (41 of 74)
2017	0 to 23.5 ppm	36% (27 of 74)	15% (11 of 74)	49% (36 of 74)
2018	0 to 30.9 ppm	40% (25 of 63)	11% (7 of 63)	49% (31 of 63)
2019	0 to 24.5 ppm	46% (22 of 48)	10% (5 of 48)	44% (21 of 48)
2020	0.08 to 20.5	34% (19 of 56)	11% (6 of 56)	36% (20 of 56)	19% (11 of 56)

All sample results from Lab have been received.

Rationale: 

2020 is the fifth year of this Phase 3 Area.  This Phase 3 area went into effect September 1, 2015.  The 55 sections of this area first went into a Phase Area in 2004.  The ten sections that were in Phase 2 are now in Phase 3.  As such, the 2020 numbers (at bottom of table) are for 65 sections. 

Year	Nitrate-nitrogen Range	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 0 to 8.0 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 8.01 to 10.00 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 10.01 to 15 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen greater than 15 ppm
2004	0 to 47 ppm	30% (42 of 139)	10% (14 of 139)	60% (83 of 139)
2005	0 to 120 ppm	31.3% (74 of 236)	10.2% (24 of 236)	58.5% (138 of 236)
2006	0 to 53 ppm	28% (50 of 181)	14% (26 of 181)	58% (105 of 181)
2007	0 to 99 ppm	32% (75 of 231)	10% (22 of 231)	58% (134 of 227)
2008	0 to 46 ppm	28% (53 of 190)	12% (23 of 190)	60% (114 of 190)
2009	0 to 57 ppm	33% (72 of 216)	6% (13 of 216)	61% (131 of 216)
2010	0 to 57.5 ppm	31% (70 of 229)	7% (15 of 229)	62% (142 of 229)
2011	0 to 65.8 ppm	28% (67 of 241)	9% (21 of 241)	63% (153 of 241)
2012	0 to 52.6 ppm	29% (70 of 241)	9% (21 of 241)	62% (150 of 241)
2013	0 to 94.0 ppm	25% (63 of 252)	9% (23 of 252)	66% (166 of 252)
2014	0 to 101.0 ppm	27% (68 of 251)	9% (22 of 251)	64% (161 of 251)
2015	0 to 53.3 ppm	23% (55 of 238)	12% (29 of 238)	65% (154 of 238)
2016	0 to 50.5 ppm	25% (58 of 228)	10% (22 of 228)	65% (148 of 228)
2017	0 to 53.4 ppm	25% (60 of 238)	6% (14 of 238)	69% (164 of 238)
2018	0 to 56.9 ppm	26.5% (50 of 189)	6.3% (12 of 189)	67.2% (127 of 189)
2019	0 to 39.4 ppm	25% (53 of 209)	11% (22 of 209)	64% (134 of 209)
2020	0 to 50.8	25% (59 of 234)	6% (14 of 234)	27% (64 of 234)	42% (97 of 234)

All sample results from Lab have been received.  There are, however, two dozen kits to Phase 3 Area producers which have not yet been returned.  

Rationale:  Some maps showing nitrates results.  These are the samples that NRD staff collected.    

Staff presented the nitrate maps showing the preliminary nitrate results from the water sampling conducted in summer 2020.  The Committee is concerned on the percentage of wells over 15 ppm in the Schuyler-Richland Phase Area.  It was recommended that staff should have discussions with public health officials for their thoughts on the nitrate issues.  Staff will be contacting this group for future education to the Committee/Board.    

Rationale: 

# new wells has been reviewed and approved for decommissioning since the last Committee meeting.

 

Rationale: 

# wells have been plugged, reviewed, and ready for cost share payment approval this month.

Well Owner	Type of Well	Cost Share Estimate	County

 

Rationale:  Staff has been working directly with LRE/JEO on the Nitrogen Risk Management Tool.  Here is some information from the conversations, which staff/committee can give some input. Attached is conceptual flow chart. 

Staff showed the flow chart to the Committee and explained that after the assessment tool is developed, it can assists in identifying areas of greatest concerns in terms of contamination leaching.  The nitrate assessment tool should help in placing best management practices in strategical locations.  

SWB Model

• Model in initial calibration stage
• A qualitative calibration will be completed using Dr. Snow’s vadose data provided by the NRD.
• Model will be run at this time with the following landcover categories:

1. Corn
2. Soybeans
3. Alfalfa
4. Pasture/Grass
5. Wheat/small grain (Action item: Roscoe will discuss with Joel on the roots zones to see of other category may be broken out of this)

 BMPs - Tool input (Committee Input)

• 2 crop rotation 
• Manure Application  
• Variable Rate N application 
• Split application 
• Tissue sampling 
• No till 
• Buffer strips 
• Residue management 
• Flow Meters to monitor water usage 
• Using Phase Reports as a tool before applying fertilizer 
• Soil Sampling/Recommended Fertilizer rate 
• Introducing microbial life with the application of bioremediation products 
• Chemigation 
• Soil Moisture Probes 
• Cover crops 
• Rye 
• Barley 
• Forage Mix 
• Remote reading of rainfall, soil moisture, humidity and a number of other crop health factors to give the crop the fertilizer it needs at the time it needs it for maximum efficiency.  

Irrigation Methods and Nitrogen Application

• The NRD will provide literature on common practice methods associated nitrogen applications associated with different irrigation types.
  • Possible irrigation Categories:
    • No irrigation
    • Center Pivot
    • Chemigation (this may apply to many methods)
    • Furrow
    • Drip

• This may be used in place of  a range of nitrogen application categories:
  • • No Nitrogen
    • Reduced Nitrogen
    • Typical for Crop
    • Long-term typical applications
    • Heavy long-term application
• Further discussion with the NRD to define the methods is necessary on this to nail down the approach to determining the qualitative risk associated with variable nitrogen loadings. (Action item: TBD)

Rationale:  The LLNRD has had an account open for the Elm Modeling project that still had some cash in it. We have decided to close that account and distribute the money based on participation percentage back to the Districts.
You will be receiving a check in the mail that reflects those amounts. Don’t spend it all in one place!
Thanks!
Russ
 
LCNRD - $400.92
LENRD - $2,502.30
LNNRD - $891.70
LPNNRD - $894.01
MNNRD - $760.37
UENRD - $3,023.04
ULNRD - $3,513.82

The Lower Platte North will be receiving $894.01 for its portion from LLNRD. 

Rationale:  Staff explained the changes made to the Long Range Plan, which the Committee had no issue with.  The Committee did discuss the process of implementing flow meters district wide.  Staff explained that if the NET grant is approved for BMPs in the phase areas, the NRD would be offering cost-share to start the process of installing flow meters in these areas in 2021.  Staff reported to the Committee, that at this time around 1000 wells are required to have flow meters and is in the process of getting about 2 dozens producers, since 2008, into compliance with this requirement.  

Attached is the Long Range Plan that was presented at September Board Meeting.  The Plan was tabled as concern was raised over the direction of a Board Member on Water Use within the District.  Staff added these statements on page 11 (15) and 13 (17).

To start the process of collecting accurate water use data to assist in future water studies and increase water consumption efficiency. 
 
6. Integrated Water Management.  Siting of potential recharge sites, storage reservoirs (both surface and groundwater), and potential water reuse projects to enhance the water supply in the District.  Additional water use devices, monitoring wells, streamflow gauging, and precipitation sites will likely be necessary.  Effects of climate change will also need to be considered as part of integrated water management. 

The following statement was already included on page 12 (16)

Develop a groundwater model for each sub-area.  Additional information on water use from all wells will be needed for accurate information.  

Is the Committee wanting to make a motion to install Water Use Devices District Wide?
If yes, what would be the time table?  Groundwater Rules and Regulation change?
What is the purpose or justification to go District wide with Water levels, as a whole, still above trigger levels?