By CINDY GONZALEZ
Nebraska Examiner
OMAHA — Nearly $2 million in federal grant funds will go to two water conservation projects in southwest Nebraska, the Department of the Interior has announced.
A $1.1 million grant is to help defray the cost of a $2.68 million project in the Middle Republican Natural Resources District. The district includes at least parts of five counties: Frontier, Hayes, Hitchcock, Red Willow and Lincoln.
The other $834,310 grant is to help pay for a $2 million project in the Upper Republican Natural Resources District, which encompasses Dundy, Chase and Perkins Counties.
The Nebraska grants are part of a $140 million national package announced by the Department of Interior. Much of the grant funding comes from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law that allocated $8.3 billion for national water infrastructure projects.
Natural resources districts, known as NRDs, empower locally elected community members to manage the state’s water resources, noted U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I’m glad to see the bipartisan infrastructure law, which I supported, invest in this unique system of stewardship as we look to protect communities from the impacts of severe drought,” she said Monday in a media release.
Jasper Fanning, general manager of the Upper Republican NRD, described the funds as “a big step forward” in efforts to increase efficiency in his area.
“Our WaterSMART grant will modernize water management for our NRD and hundreds of farmers across three of the most agriculturally productive counties in Nebraska, helping to preserve the High Plains Aquifer for future generations of farmers,” Fanning said in the statement provided by Fischer’s office.
The grant will help install 2,000 digital meter heads and transceivers at irrigation wells. The resulting data is expected to better manage water use and reduce irrigation water use in the area by more than 9%.
Conserved water ultimately would remain in the aquifer and help the state maintain compliance with the Republican River Compact and a related agreement that allocates Republican River water use between Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado.
Jack Russell, general manager of the Middle Republican NRD, said the grant awarded to his district will provide equipment critical in controlling water quantity and addressing water quality.
More specifically, it will install “real-time telemetry equipment” on 691 irrigation flow meters to improve farm water and management reporting. Conserved water would remain in the local aquifer to maintain groundwater levels for future irrigation events.
Cover image courtesy Allison Kite / Kansas Reflector