Big Mac to supply irrigators next year

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BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star

The state's largest irrigation district will release water to irrigators in south-central Nebraska next year, which could nearly empty Lake McConaughy by the end of the summer.

The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District Board of Directors voted 12-3 Tuesday to deliver 6.7 inches of irrigation water in 2005 to each of about 1,300 contract holders who have legal rights to the water. The board considered the option of holding back the water in Lake McConaughy, but a survey of irrigators showed about 90 percent wanted it for their crops.

The irrigators' contracts entitle them to 18 inches of water annually, so the 6.7-inch pledge represents a substantial cut. Without supplements from center pivot irrigation systems or timely rains, the McConaughy releases may fall short of the moisture needed to raise a crop.

"It's a tough call," said Doyle Lavene, a board member and irrigator from Bertrand. "(McConaughy) was built for irrigation and the water in it belongs to irrigators, but until the situation remedies, we're all going to be in a world of hurt."

The state's largest reservoir, also prized for its fishery and recreational value, has dipped below 20 percent of full capacity under four straight years of drought. Today, the lake level is expected to fall below the record low set in 1956.

Low flows from the North Platte River into McConaughy have decimated the lake. Before the drought started in 2000, average annual inflow to the lake was 1 million acre-feet of water. Since 2000, inflows have averaged 450,000 acre-feet, said Tim Anderson, a spokesman for the district.

"If we have another year of low inflows and real dry conditions continue and all the entities take the water available to them, the lake could, I want to emphasize could, be near dry," he said Tuesday.

Timely, above-average rainfall over the 113,000 acres irrigated by McConaughy could conserve water in the lake. The Nebraska Public Power District and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also control a combined 225,000 acre-feet of water in the lake that could affect how much water remains.

Any water not needed to meet the reduced irrigation releases will remain in the lake. Next year's releases will also benefit the Gerald Gentleman Station near Sutherland, the state's largest electrical generating plant that relies on McConaughy water for cooling, Anderson said.

Some with a stake in McConaughy had hoped the board might decide to suspend irrigation releases next year. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, which manages fish, wildlife and parks at McConaughy, advocated keeping a minimum level of water in the lake.

Kirk Nelson, the commission's assistant director in charge of fisheries and wildlife, said Tuesday the agency will do its best to maintain the parks for visitors if the worst-case scenario comes to pass. He did not criticize the board for its vote.

"Putting myself in the place of a landowner, a producer, I don't know if they have much choice," he said.

Elected officials have advocated using a federal conservation program to pay irrigators to plant their acres in grasses for wildlife, thus decreasing the demand for irrigation water. But the process of altering the program to allow such payments is in its early stages and isn't sure to succeed.

While everyone has tried to hold onto optimism, long-term weather forecasts call for continued drought. Lake McConaughy, and all the people who rely on its water, have nearly run out of time.

"We've got to hope and pray this drought can be broken," Lavene said.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.