Business owner worried about drought's impact on Elwood Reservoir

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By The Associated Press

HOLDREGE — Low water levels at Elwood Reservoir could spell disaster for businesses that rely on fishing in the area, said Elsie Townsend, the only concessionaire at the lake.

"We're just trying to figure out what's going to happen," Townsend told Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District directors Monday. Townsend, who owns The Reverie, said she was particularly worried about the fishery.

The district decided not to fill Elwood Reservoir this year as it struggles with a drought entering its sixth year in some parts of Nebraska. In addition, Central irrigators will receive only 6.7 inches of irrigation water this summer.

"The lake is down to about one-fourth of its capacity," Townsend said. "We're afraid we're going to lose all the fish in there. There's no water coming in, and it's just sick."

Townsend asked the board about getting natural flows from the Platte River to bring Elwood Reservoir up this spring to what it normally is in the fall. That would be 4 to 5 feet higher than it is now.

But the district's general manager, Don Kraus, said the district has a water right only to hold storage water in Elwood Reservoir.

"It has to be water stored from Lake McConaughy," he said.

Only the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and Central Platte Natural Resources District have natural flow rights in the river, Kraus said.

Usually, storage water is held in Elwood Reservoir to be delivered to some Central customers late in the irrigation season. This year, Kraus said, the goal is to hold the maximum amount of water in Lake McConaughy for irrigation and other uses and draw down Johnson Lake earlier for the last of the 2005 irrigation runs.

In February, Brad Newcomb, a fisheries expert at the commission's regional office in Kearney, said officials did not know what the new water level lows reached in Elwood Reservoir would mean for fish survival.

Two fish stockings, one for wipers and one for channel catfish, were canceled last year, and a walleye stocking was done at a reduced rate.

Townsend said she wants to talk to Nebraska Game and Parks officials about the possibility of lifting the fishing limits.

"If we don't let fishermen take what they want, we're going to have a big fish kill this fall, probably, August," she said. "If I can't get any water (into the lake), I want to get the restrictions lifted."

Townsend also asked about next year.

"Are we going to have a lake or not? That's our big question."