NPPD delays call on Niobrara water

NPPD delays call on Niobrara water

	Published : Thu, 28 Jun 2007 22:13 By : Agencies Print this Story

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska Public Power District is giving irrigators upstream of its Spencer Dam more time to divert Niobrara River water before they have to pay for it or be cut off.

In a news release, NPPD said it believes that 'delaying the call for water for the Spencer Hydro Power Plant until Aug. 1 will provide adequate time for junior surface water irrigators in the Niobrara River basin above the hydro to enter into subordination agreements offered by NPPD.'

The agreements let irrigators use their junior water rights -- for a price -- during times of flow shortages.

The district originally told the irrigators with water rights junior to NPPD that they had to end use on May 1, but changed its mind. It was in the process of cutting off use on July 1 instead, but now has extended that to Aug. 1

NPPD said it doesn't expect extensions beyond Aug. 1.

Some of the irrigators last month sued NPPD and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.

The irrigators described NPPD's offer to sell water rights back to the irrigators -- as long as the irrigators concede that NPPD has priority over their water rights -- as 'economic coercion.'

The class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in North Platte says the irrigators should have been given a hearing before their water was put in jeopardy. It also requests that NPPD tear down Spencer Dam and remove the silt left behind.

Nebraska's surface water is distributed on a priority system -- the older the water claim, the higher the priority of usage.

Brian Barels, NPPD's water resources manager, says NPPD's water claims on the Niobrara for Spencer date to the 1890s -- senior to claims by most of the irrigators upstream.

But Nebraska also has a preference system for surface water. Domestic uses -- drinking water, etc. -- rank the highest, followed by irrigation, then manufacturing.

In this case, the manufacturing is the power generation at Spencer Dam.

The state administers the water by the priority system, unless some group wants to assert its preference.

The irrigators can do that, Barels says, but under state law they must compensate the NPPD its cost to replace the power.

NPPD's board has set that figure at 70 cents an acre-foot, which is enough water to cover an acre of dirt with one foot of water. The money will buy power elsewhere in order to compensate for loss of the station's output.