The South Platte NRD Board of Directors is a group of locally elected officials managing area natural resources on your behalf. The board meets the second Tuesday of each month and welcomes your input.
The next scheduled board meeting is:
Tuesday, May 8
7:00 p.m. at the District Office, 551 Parkland Dr. in Sidney.
Click here to see board agendas and minutes.
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Public Notices To see current meeting notices, click here. |
SPNRD Continues Irrigator Certifications
The South Platte Natural Resources District has, since February, hosted a series of certification sessions for irrigators within the District, covering a variety of topics. The sessions provided those in attendance information they needed to meet the requirements under the Districtwide Groundwater Management Rules and Regulations, Rule 6.4. Since 2002, those Rules and Regulations have required that all owners of certified irrigated acres, or the operators of those acres, receive training once every four years to be classified as certified.
Just a few owners or operators have not met the qualifications by attending a certification meeting. If you are a landowner or an operator on irrigated land in the District, you must certify by May 1, 2012 to comply.
Those not abiding by this requirement will be in non-compliance, subject to Rule 5 of the Districtwide Groundwater Management Rules and Regulations. To avoid a non-compliance issue, please make arrangements to certify as soon as possible by contacting the District office.
Changes To Districtwide Rules and Regulations Include Allocation Adjustments
Allocations of ground water used for irrigation will change in some areas beginning in the 2013 growing season following a change in the South Platte Natural Resources District’s (SPNRD) rules and regulations.
The District board of directors voted 6-1 to make the changes at its regular March meeting. The decision was made following months of review and meetings, including a public hearing that preceded the board meeting. (Click here to read more)
2011 Water Quality Report Presented
The District’s 2011 Ground Water Quality Monitoring Program Report was presented to the Board of Directors at the January board meeting by Natural Resources Coordinator Chris Kaiser.
This was the 20th year the District has monitored nitrates. To collect date, monitoring wells were sampled quarterly, while irrigation and domestic wells were sampled twice between May and October when possible. (Click here to read more)
Director Subdistricts Change Due To Population Shifts
Changes to South Platte NRD Director Subdistricts will have constituents in some areas represented by different directors.
The changes are a result of realignments due to population shifts, documented by the 2010 census. By law, representative subdistricts can have no more than a 10 percent variation between the most and least populated areas. The optimum target is a 1:1 ratio.
Cheyenne County, mostly the Sidney area, grew from 2000 to 2010, while populations in Kimball and Deuel County declined. The population shift resulted in a 34 percent variance between SPNRD Subdistrict 5, which covers southeast Sidney and Cheyenne County, and Subdistrict 2, the east side if Kimball and Kimball County and a sliver of western Cheyenne County.
The biggest change in bringing subdistricts’ representative population into alignment was to move the Subdistrict 2 eastern boundary. Previously, Potter had been split between Subdistricts 2 and 4, but now lies wholly within Subdistrict 2.
Most other changes made to balance subdistrict populations were made with slight shifts within Kimball and Sidney. With the realignments, the variance between the largest and smallest subdistricts is seven percent.
Directors and their subdistricts are: SubDistrict 1 – Bill Halligan of Bushnell; Subdistrict 2 – James Johnson of Dix; Subdistrict 3 – Timothy Maas of rural Potter; Subdistrict 4 – Paul Hutchison of rural Sidney; Subdistrict 5 – Kieth Rexroth of Sidney; Subdistrict 6 – Tom Biggs of rural Sidney; and Subdistrict 7 – Larry Rutt of rural Chappell. (Click here to see the new subdistrict map)
Conservation Award Winners Recognized
Four awards were presented Saturday, October 15 to groups and individuals protecting natural resources and the environment across the South Platte Natural Resources District.
Each year representatives from SPNRD, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and UNL Extension nominate people and projects within the District that excel in the areas of caring for natural resources and also sharing with others the information they’ve gleaned as stewards. The team’s recommendations are then forwarded to the SPNRD Board of Directors for approval. Award winners are then recognized at an awards banquet in the fall.
Board Approves Changes to Rules and Regulations
At its May 2011 meeting, the board of directors adopted an order giving approval to the Amended and Restated Districtwide Ground Water Management Area Rules and Regulations. The action also repeals three other ground water management documents that were incorporated into the new rules and regulations.
The overhaul of the Districtwide Ground Water Management Area Rules and Regulations streamlines the documents related to management of the District’s ground water in relation to both quantity and quality. The various rules and regulations were formed at varying times over the years.(Click here to read more)
NARD Conservation Tree Booklet Updated
To further assist you with your conservation tree purchase this year, the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD) and Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts (NRDs) have updated and published the popular and widely distributed Conservation Trees for Nebraska booklet this summer. Like the old booklet, each tree species is represented with excellent color photos (tree aspect and foliage
close ups). Descriptions of the tree’s notable features, disease vulnerabilities, and vegetative growing zone information are also included. The new 58 page booklet also contains information on weed barrier and control, drip systems, and reference maps to all 23 NRDs and Nebraska Forest Service Districts.
Many new species are included in the new edition such as Black Hills Spruce, Southwestern White Pine, Harbin Pear, Northern Catalpa, Pecan, American Hazelnut and many more. Forty seven species are featured in the new booklet. The new booklet also features a quick reference table to all species described within.
Planted properly in appropriate locations, conservation trees protect newborn calves, protect soils, save water, save energy, and provide habitat for wildlife.
Booklets are available at your NRD Office, your nearest NRCS Field Office and UNL Extension offices in Chappell, Kimball and Sidney. It is also available online at http://www.nrdtrees.org/
Three Groups Earn Groundwater Guardian Designations For 2010
The South Platte NRD was among three local groups earning designations from the Groundwater Foundation in 2010 for work they perform toward the protection of ground water.
For the 11th straight year, the Sidney Groundwater Guardian Team has received its Groundwater Guardian designation. The team was developed by the South Platte NRD, the city of Sidney and local business leaders with two goals... (Click here to read more)
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Board Looks At Economic Impact
The South Platte Natural Resources District board of directors accepted a report at its October 2010 meeting, outlining possible affects of District actions on the area’s economy.
The report, entitled “The Economic Impact of the South Platte NRD’s Integrated Management Plan and Districtwide Ground Water Management Area Rules and Regulations,” was commissioned by the District to see what affects its regulations might have. (Click here to read more)
SPNRD Coordinates Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan Development
South Platte Natural Resources District is coordinating a planning effort to develop a “Multi-jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan” for a three county area, including all of Kimball, Cheyenne, and Deuel Counties.
The hazard mitigation plan is a publicly-guided document that will identify local vulnerability to natural disasters such as flood, drought, earthquake, wildfire, winter storm, tornado/high wind storm, dam failure, etc. (Click here to read more)
Platte Basin-Wide Water Management Progress Reviewed
Officials from Platte Basin Natural Resources Districts (NRDs) and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) met for a review of the Basin-wide Plan for Joint Integrated Water Resources Management of the Overappropriated Portion of the Platte River Basin, Nebraska. (Click here to read more)
Program Provides Options To Preserve Area’s Grassland Cover
With the potential expiration of contracts protecting more than 260,000 acres of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land in the Panhandle by 2013, Panhandle natural resources districts and the Natural Resources Conservation Service have teamed together to preserve regional grassland cover. (Click here to read more)
Helicopter Scans Provide New Look At Geology
When the first Helicopter Electromagnetic (HEM) system took flight over the South Platte NRD in June of 2008, it was a relatively new concept in exploring Nebraska’s water formations. Test flights had been performed in the eastern part of the state, but in the west, with widely varying formations at vastly different depths – capabilities were still an unknown.
Since then, a number of additional flights, both contracted and flown as free demonstrations of companies’ capabilities, have traversed parts of the District. (Click here to read more)
WANTED: Local weather watchers for NeRAIN
Volunteers are needed in Cheyenne, Deuel and Kimball counties to volunteer for a special project for studying the complex patterns of rain, hail and snow in Nebraska.
NeRAIN, (the Nebraska Rainfall Assessment and Information Network) is looking for volunteers – preferably with Internet access -- willing to report measurements of precipitation using high quality backyard rain gauges. (Click here to read more)
Citizens' Group Monitors Environmental Impact
In keeping with its mission to protect and manage natural recources, one activity the District is involved with is the Citizen’s Monitoring Committee (CMC) at Kimball.
The local group, established by the South Platte NRD and the Kimball community, monitors the environmental impact of operations at Clean Harbors Environmental Services, Inc. (CHESI). (Click here to read more)
South Platte Natural Resources District | 551 Parkland Dr. | P.O. Box 294 | Sidney, NE 69162
308-254-2377 | 877-800-1030 (In Neb.) | Fax 308-254-2783 | Email: spnrd@spnrd.org