Post by Logan on Feb 21, 2016 7:28:02 GMT -6
Nebraska taps into water reserve to augment Republican River, and avoid more legal trouble with Kansas
DICKENS, Neb. — For the third consecutive year, Nebraska is tapping a vein of its water wealth in a groundbreaking venture to avoid another legal battle with Kansas over the Republican River.
Millions of gallons of water pumped by a battery of wells from deep underground and piped across the southwest Nebraska plains are cascading into Medicine Creek and coursing downstream to Cambridge and the Republican River, where the water eventually flows into Kansas.
The water has been flowing all winter. The current flush started in late October and isn’t expected to stop until this spring. That’s when enough water to cover 31,000 acres — more than 48 square miles — a foot deep will have been pumped to augment flows in the Republican.
But this year, Nebraska is getting more bang for the buck — call it gusto per gallon — for the water.
That’s because a U.S. Supreme Court decision last February and a new agreement involving Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado — the three states that share the river under a 1942 compact — will significantly decrease the volume of water pumped, said Nate Jenkins, assistant manager of the Upper Republican Natural Resources District in Imperial.
Read more: www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/nebraska-taps-into-water-reserve-to-augment-republican-river-and/article_3e6ca5ab-469d-5796-b3c4-3d2a724ffac9.html
DICKENS, Neb. — For the third consecutive year, Nebraska is tapping a vein of its water wealth in a groundbreaking venture to avoid another legal battle with Kansas over the Republican River.
Millions of gallons of water pumped by a battery of wells from deep underground and piped across the southwest Nebraska plains are cascading into Medicine Creek and coursing downstream to Cambridge and the Republican River, where the water eventually flows into Kansas.
The water has been flowing all winter. The current flush started in late October and isn’t expected to stop until this spring. That’s when enough water to cover 31,000 acres — more than 48 square miles — a foot deep will have been pumped to augment flows in the Republican.
But this year, Nebraska is getting more bang for the buck — call it gusto per gallon — for the water.
That’s because a U.S. Supreme Court decision last February and a new agreement involving Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado — the three states that share the river under a 1942 compact — will significantly decrease the volume of water pumped, said Nate Jenkins, assistant manager of the Upper Republican Natural Resources District in Imperial.
Read more: www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/nebraska-taps-into-water-reserve-to-augment-republican-river-and/article_3e6ca5ab-469d-5796-b3c4-3d2a724ffac9.html