North Platte reservoirs hold little promise

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By The Associated Press

TORRINGTON, Wyo. — The water levels in the North Platte reservoir system have been on the decline for years, and a water official says he doesn’t expect it to get any better.

John Lawson, an area manager with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation based in Mills, Wyo., said the reservoir system — which feeds Panhandle irrigation districts and Lake McConaughy — held 805,800 acre-feet on Sept. 30, a far cry from its 2.8 million acre-foot capacity.

His office’s water prediction for the 2007 water year, which began Oct. 1, puts the most probable water level at 792,500 acre-feet. The minimum water level is forecast to be 417,000 acre-feet.

The prediction is based on previous water data and current conditions.

“It’s not a rosy picture,” Lawson said Tuesday during the bureau’s annual meeting on water operations. “We haven’t reached the most probable plan in seven years.”

In fact, he said, the North Platte system has dropped about 100,000 acre-feet a year in that time.

The reservoirs that are part of that system — Seminoe, Pathfinder and Glendo — are operating well below their capacities, between 20 and 30 percent, Lawson said.

Reduced water flow from these into the North Platte River has been one of the factors forcing water levels down in Lake McConaughy.

The man-made lake gets most of its water from the North Platte. It can hold about 2 million acre-feet of water, but this summer hit a record-low 19 percent capacity.

As a result, the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District has reduced water allotments for irrigators that use Lake McConaughy.

Before seven years of drought started, irrigators got around 18 inches an acre. This season they received 8.4 inches an acre, but that will drop to 6.7 inches next year.

Current drought conditions in Nebraska vary from abnormally dry in the east to extreme drought in the northwest, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.