The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that state officials aren't handcuffed by water-district boundaries when making irrigation decisions.
NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, September 25, 2008 7:00 pm
The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled state officials don’t have to pay attention to political boundaries of regional water districts when making irrigation decisions.
The case involves a Department of Natural Resources decision that the Platte River needs to be protected from additional irrigation — and the further depletion of water available to the river.
That ban on new wells and additional irrigation included regions of the state, from Columbus west, where surface water flowed into the Platte.
This included five natural resources districts whose surface water flowed into the Platte.
The ban also extended into areas where ground water only was connected hydrologically to the Platte.
That extended the irrigation ban into the Upper Big Blue Natural Resources District, specifically an area in northwest Hamilton County.
The Upper Big Blue NRD initiated the suit, arguing the state overstepped its authority two years ago by stopping irrigation development in its basin when another basin, the Platte, was the main focus of its study.
The Supreme Court decision upheld the state’s right to use the ground water connections in decisions.
“We think this is a common sense ruling that recognizes wells in one basin can have a detrimental impact on surface water in another basin,” said Attorney General Jon Bruning.
The state must have authority to use real world factors to protect a fully appropriated basin, he said.
In the real world, you can have an aquifer that flows into both basins and can affect the surface water on the other side of the hill, he said.
“That is the reality and this decision reflects that,” Bruning said.
NRD boundaries were based generally on surface water drainage basins, and state law at the time did not recognize the connection between some ground water aquifers and surface water.
In the decision, the Supreme Court said the Legislature did recognize that connection in recent water law and explicitly required the Department of Natural Resources to consider these areas of hydrological connection in its decisions.
John Turnbull, director of the Upper Big Blue NRD, expressed disappointment in the decision, but said the NRD would live with the results. That includes continuing to ban new wells in a 15-square-mile portion of the NRD.
“We raised the challenge. We felt the statute limited regulation to the river basin lines,” he said.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.