ULNRD Receives Grant from Nebraska Environmental Trust

Upper Loup Natural Resources District announced today that it will receive $100,000 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust for the “Groundwater Irrigation Management Program”. The Trust Board announced funding for the project at its meeting on April 4, 2013 in Lincoln.

Funding is being sought from the Environmental Trust to help provide a portion of the monies needed to offer flowmeters and crop water sensors to irrigators. Having this technology in place will help to increase understanding of groundwater irrigation occurring in the Upper Loup Natural Resources District (ULNRD) as well as help irrigators to conserve water by managing water application practices. This project addresses several of the trust’s priorities in regards to water use. There is limited information available regarding the total amounts of irrigation taking place across the District. Due to the increasing demands of water for irrigation it is important that long-term water usage is managed in a sustainable and equitable way. Effective groundwater irrigation management begins with accurate water use measurements. Quantifying the amount of groundwater utilized for irrigation is essential for water and nitrate management. Currently data is manually recorded by farmers resulting in irregular reporting and is subject to human errors. We are looking at the Trust to help provide funds for the flowmeter portion of this project. The placement of flowmeters on wells, which qualified District personnel will read, will ensure the accuracy of the data collected.

The ULNRD is also involved with the Elkhorn Loup Modeling (ELM) Project, which heavily relies on irrigation pumping figures and having accurate data is absolutely imperative to ensuring the accuracy and replicability of the numerical groundwater model. The ULNRD wants to use the best scientifically-based management practices to deal with current and future groundwater management needs and feels that this project will provide key information when developing groundwater policy.