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Lake McConaughy still only one-third full

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By The Associated Press

Wednesday, Sep 03, 2008 - 02:13:40 pm CDT

HOLDREGE — Despite a relatively good irrigation season in 2008, farmers will have to plan on no more than 6.7 inches of water from Lake McConaughy next year.

Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District directors have voted to maintain the 2008 limit in 2009, which will be the fifth consecutive year of cutbacks.

Irrigators normally get 18 inches a year.

In 2005, the district delivered 6.7 inches per acre to irrigators; in 2006, 8.4 inches; 2007, 6.7 inches; 2008, 6.7 inches; and the same is now planned for 2009, 6.7 inches.

District General Manager Don Kraus said some irrigators want to raise the allocation to 8.4 inches, but the directors decided to remain cautious despite some welcome news about the reservoir’s current state.

Directors were told at their meeting Tuesday that the lake is 8 feet higher than a year ago.

But the lake — Nebraska’s largest — is still only 33 percent full.

It can hold 1.7 million acre-feet of water. An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre of land with a foot of water, or enough to meet the yearly residential needs of an average family of four.

Civil engineer Cory Steinke told the board that this year’s higher-than-average snowpack runoff from the North Platte basin isn’t a sure thing next year.

Most of the water that fills the reservoir takes an indirect route from the Wyoming mountains in the form of “return flows’’ — groundwater that seeps into the river and irrigation runoff from Panhandle farm fields.

A full supply of North Platte irrigation water to the Panhandle reduces groundwater consumption and increases irrigation runoff into the river as it heads to McConaughy.

In addition, Steinke said, a 4-inch August rain in the Scottsbluff area gave the river a flow boost.

Several such good years are necessary to refill McConaughy, which has been drained by years of drought and less snowpack runoff.

In June, McConaughy was at 46 percent of capacity, up from 39 percent last year and a steep increase from 2004. In September of that year the state’s largest reservoir was at less than 20 percent of capacity, its lowest level since being built in the 1940s.


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sa wrote on September 3, 2008 3:43 pm:
" so it's 33% full. Has it ever been 100% full? What is average "full?" Just wondered. "

 big mac wrote on September 3, 2008 4:15 pm:
" was there last weekend. TONS of sand and the nearest boat dock to the water is about 3/4 of a mile away "

 Ignignokt wrote on September 3, 2008 4:16 pm:
" Most reservoirs have an 'average full pool', which is usually given as an elevation of water level above sea level. I am relatively certain that, at some point in the last decade, it has been at full pool. "

 Dan wrote on September 3, 2008 4:20 pm:
" Well if it is only 33% full, how come everytime I go there is a ton of water shooting out of the dam? It is a pretty simple answer. Quit letting water out of the darn thing. Ya, the farmers won't have any water. Make it dry land farming. "

 Gotta think wrote on September 3, 2008 4:40 pm:
" Dan, I hope that's not a serious idea you presented. Nebraska is an agricultural state. Suddenly converting tens of thousands of acres to dry land would absolutely destroy local economies and do serious damage to the state economy. "

 I like Dans comments wrote on September 3, 2008 4:40 pm:
" Stop the river from flowing...that will work. :) "

 Clay wrote on September 3, 2008 6:00 pm:
" What most Nebraskans don't realize is that you get 75% of the water that flows out of Wyoming from the North Platte. Therefore what you should be more concerned about is not rainfall in Nebraska but the yearly snowpack in Wyoming. That is what fills the river. If you want to know how Big Mac is going to be every summer you need to keep an eye on our melting snowpack here in Wyoming every April, May, and June. "

 wells wrote on September 3, 2008 8:49 pm:
" A lot of water is being sucked up before it gets to the lake. The river flows good early (from good snow pack) but once the pivots start the river flow is greatly reduced. Nebr sucks about 5 trillion gallons of water from the ground annually. That is about 10 Big Macs a year. Over a 100,000 pivots in Nebr, do the math. "

 Vern Valley wrote on September 3, 2008 9:32 pm:
" I don't know how accurate your 10 trillion gallons of water statement is. Probably way to high this year, and low other years. 90% of the pivots in this state have nothing to do with Big Mac. That lake is all about wyoming snow pack and panhandle rain, of which lately there is very little. The vast majority of the groundwater recharge is from slow percolation from rainfall in state Much more than that flows out of the state each year from the Platte, Republican, and Blue rivers. Irrigation is a precious resource of this state, one that we should be proud of, protect and utilize to its fullest, yet keep the groundwater levels up. "

 JP wrote on September 4, 2008 1:46 am:
" Dan

I think by law they have to let a certain amount of water flow through. So cities and states down stream can get water. I seem to remember an article several years ago when it was at it’s lowest. They where saying "they may not be able to meet the mandatory release requirement. "

 SB wrote on September 4, 2008 7:57 am:
" If the farmers in the surrounding areas were so worried about irrigation levels and crop yields they wouldn’t have some of the most luscious bluegrass lawns I’ve ever seen in their front yards. The western panhandle is like a dead horse that just keeps getting whipped for one more ounce of water. It’s interesting that you don’t see surrounding states South Dakota, Colorado, and Wyoming plucking a pivot in every desert pasture trying to grow corn. "

 Scott in Ogallala wrote on September 4, 2008 10:32 am:
" Lake McConaughy is governed by a very complex set of water rights. While CNPPID is the biggest user, there are "natural flow" requirements, the environmental account requirements for the USFW, smaller irrigation districts that draw from it, and NPPD has rights to water for Gerald Gentleman power plant AND their own irrigation customers.

Wyoming snow pack is the key to McConaughy's recovery, and they are doing better, but are still in a drought, as is the panhandle. Upstream irrigation still needs to be addressed, as inflows remain low as much of the water is intercepted upstream in the panhandle. There is also very little water in the South Platte coming from Colorado anymore. While it doesn't feed McConaughy, less water in the South means more water that has to be released from McConaughy in the future.

And yes, the lake has been "full," but not since 2000. "Full" means a storage elevation of 3265 feet above sea level. Here is a graph. They reduced the "full" mark from 3270 to 3265 in 1972, the year water washed out part of the top of the dam during a storm.

http://www.cnppid.com/Assets/McConaughy1941-Present.jpg "

 Scott in Ogallala wrote on September 4, 2008 10:34 am:
" Big Mac, there are two boat docks and ramps currently in the water, not 3/4 of a mile away. Sadly, there are about 10 other ramps that have been high and dry for the past 5-9 years. "

 Well wrote on September 4, 2008 9:40 pm:
" Maybe dr. tom can ask for some help from a higher power. I'm sure if tom asks it will fill up. For some reason I thought they were talking about pumping out of the platte downstream to fill the republican. Whats next? "

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