Plan would cut irrigated land

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By ART HOVEY

Nebraska is responding to five consecutive years of drought in central and western counties by turning to a federal program that could take as much as 100,000 acres of land out of irrigation.

The objective for an approach not previously tried in the United States is to ease the pressure on depleted reservoirs. Cooperating farmers would be rewarded with incentive payments.

Gov. Mike Johanns announced an effort Thursday to get areas along the Republican and Platte rivers into a federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program at an estimated 10-year cost of $158million.

The application goes to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the state is hoping for approval as soon as Nov. 1.

"If it all goes through, as the application is designed, I think it will be very popular," Johanns said. "We're basically compensating irrigators based on the rental rates of irrigated ground."

The idea also is being pushed by U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel and U.S. Rep. Tom Osborne, whose 3rd District includes the driest counties.

If the application is approved, it would be the first time in the nation that the federal program, established in 1997, has been used to address problems with surface water quantity.

Up to now, said Greg Reisdorff of the state Farm Service Agency office in Lincoln, Nebraska and a handful of other states have confined their related requests to projects that replace field crops with ground cover to protect water quality.

In the Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District, manager Roy Patterson has been unable to draw from either Swanson or Red Willow Reservoir since July 2002.

Under normal circumstances, the Frenchman-Cambridge provides water from three reservoirs for use by about 450 farmers on 45,000 acres. The Cambridge-based Patterson said the service has been reduced to about 17,000 acres and 100 users this summer.

Water from Harry Strunk Reservoir will also be shut off next week even as much of the corn crop on the east-west path between Alma and Trenton shrivels up from lack of rain. "It looked like it went from 120 bushels (per acre) to 20 bushels," he said.

The reduced workload in the irrigation district also has forced Patterson to cut three more people from the district's remaining work force of 10.

"We've always been able to deliver water to farmers," Patterson said, referencing a career of 42 years. "But to get hit with no water at all is kind of tough on us."

Roger Patterson, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (and no relation to Roy Patterson), said farmer participation in this proposed water conservation is voluntary.

"We've had a lot of producers, particularly in the Republican, say they're interested in the program," he said.

The state official said there is already money in the USDA budget to cover the cost, but federal officials decide which projects get approved.

Bobbie Kriz-Wickham of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture has been coordinating a multi-agency approach that also includes the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and natural resources districts in the target areas.

Said Kriz-Wickham: "(W)e want to see the levels up as soon as possible, as well as give farmers an opportunity to use their land in a different way."

Dan Smith, general manager of the Middle Republican Natural Resources District in Curtis, said the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program also could be an important step toward meeting the terms of a surface-water compact that requires certain minimum flows into Kansas.

Reach Art Hovey at (402) 523-4949 or ahovey@;journalstar.com.