As I talk with residents and community leaders, ground water management challenges are a common topic. Many people do not understand the role of the NRD – especially when it comes to municipal water supplies.
Nebraska Statute §46-702 establishes the Legislature’s intent for local implementation of ground water policy through Natural Resources Districts and identifies NRDs as the “preferred regulators” of activities contributing to ground water depletion.
So what does that mean for your community?
Ag producers understand the role of NRDs in determining how much irrigation water can be sustainably withdrawn. But ground water management is broader than irrigation. An NRD ground water strategy must consider both agricultural production and community / municipal water supplies.
Each city, town, village or rural water district manages its own water system. The NRD manages and protects the ground water resource that supplies it.
If a community has problems with pumps, pipes, treatment or storage, those are primarily the responsibility of the local water system. But when the problem involves the ground water resource itself, i.e. declining ground water levels, contamination, increasing nitrate concentrations, competing ground water uses, the NRD has an important role.
The NRD can monitor ground water levels and quality, collect and require water-use information, study aquifer conditions, work with communities to identify ground water problems and, where authorized by law, establish management measures to protect the resource.
Ground water management should also look forward, as understanding existing aquifer conditions is only part of the job. Planning should consider future water demand, changes in ground water quality and quantity, and how those changes may affect the resource over time. That is an important purpose of the NRD’s Ground water Management Plan.
When several communities depend upon the same stressed ground water resource, the NRD is well positioned – and statutorily empowered – to help identify the regional problem, evaluate alternatives and bring affected communities and state agencies together to pursue solutions.
Where a regional water-supply solution may be appropriate, the NRD can help provide the ground water science and planning. Local communities, regional water districts and the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment (DWEE) address public-water infrastructure, regulatory requirements and potential financing.
And ground water management must consider all significant demands on the resource. That includes existing and proposed agricultural, municipal, commercial and industrial uses. A large new municipal wellfield or data center can affect the same ground water resource relied upon by farmers and rural communities and should therefore be accounted for in long-term ground water planning by the NRD.
The purpose of NRD ground water management should not simply be to document and restrict. It should be to study, understand, plan and help develop solutions that preserve reliable ground water supplies for agriculture, communities, businesses and future generations.
