If you have not read Part 1 of this series, it's a good idea to do so now - click here. Page numbers in ( ) without citations refer to pages in William Ashworth's book, Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the Great Plains, the inspiration for this trip.
Oh, yeah - 'COKANE' is an acronym for 'COlorado, KAnsas, NEbraska'.
In today's lesson, we see the relationship among the invention of a new type of sprinkler, pumping water from a large regional aquifer, enhancing irrigated agriculture, and the agreement among three states on how to allocate water in the Republican River basin. Can you spell 'unintended consequences'?
1) Center Pivot Sprinkler System Salvation (7, 32, 145-152, 160-64, 176, 180-81, 197-98, 203, 236, 263-64, 269)
Introduction
As you can see from the list of page numbers, Ashworth devotes a lot to center pivot (CP) sprinkler irrigation systems. They, along with high-capacity pumps, are primarily responsible for the large-scale ag in the High Plains and increased pumpage from the Ogallala Aquifer. Using CP sprinklers farmers can grow crops on land that is unsuitable for furrow or flood irrigation. They can also stretch their fixed water allocations and grow more crops because the CPs are better at delivering water to the crops. On the other hand, groundwater recharge may be lessened.
The photo of Kansas is from the CP Wikipedia entry.
Frank Comes Up Big
Invented by Frank Zybach in the 1940s and perfected by him in the early 1950s, CP sprinkler systems are now ubiquitous in this part of the country. As I drove through the Nebraska towns of Grant and Imperial I encountered Valley and Lindsay, both of which manufacture CP sprinklers. Valley was founded by Robert B. Daugherty, who endowed the Water for Food program and the institute that bears his name at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Here is a Lindsay Zimmatic CP sprinkler in front of the Lindsay store in Imperial. The wheels are about 2.5 - 3 feet in diameter. The vertical tubes hanging from the horizontal pipe (which is about 7-8 feet off the ground) are the actual sprinklers; the nozzles are about 3 feet off the ground.
Pretty impressive.
Going to Grant
In Grant I saw an office (one of nine in NE, IA and KS) of Sargent Irrigation (98), a well-drilling company. My friend Tom Downey (98, 101, 109, 112, 114) manages Sargent's small-well operations. I believe he works out of the Lexington, NE, office.
Enough about CP sprinkler irrigation systems. Other than taking more water out of the Ogallala and other aquifers, what's the big deal? Read on...
2) Republican River Redemption (42, 191-209, 249)
Introduction
Now the fun really starts.
The Republican River (RR) is a river whose significance in the annals of water law and management belies its size. Ashworth devotes a fair amount of discussion to it. Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas entered into a compact on the Republican River. in 1942. That's when the fun started.
I got so excited about seeing the iconic RR that I snapped this picture on a small bridge just south of Trenton, NE. I could see no water (obscured by the vegetation?) in the channel. Upon further investigation I realized that the USBR's Trenton Dam (Swanson Reservoir) was just a few miles upstream and was releasing barely a trickle of water.
I checked out the dam and reservoir and then looped around to once again enter the metropolis of Trenton and recrossed the river. Then I finally crossed into Kansas a few tens of miles down the road.
All done, right? Hardly. Having fun yet? Soon...
The Republican River Basin
What's unusual about the RR basin is that Kansas is both a headwaters state and a downstream state. As Ashworth likes to say (p. 202) there were actually four basin states and that Kansas was two of them. The RR proper begins just inside Nebraska, formed by the confluence of the Arikaree and North Fork of the RR.
The RR is subject to flow extremes. Normally an unimpressive stream even by Western standards, it nonetheless holds the record for the highest streamflow ever recorded in Nebraska - 280,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) during a flood (really?) in May 1935. Ashworth (193) notes that is about eight times the average pre-dam flow of the Missouri River.
The Fun Begins
Now for the fun. Remember that compact? It allocated water according to the 'virgin flow' of the Republican watershed. It neglected to mention anything about groundwater, not an uncommon occurrence among river compacts. Why should it? But as Ashworth notes (197) who could have foreseen Frank Zybach's invention and the effects it would have on groundwater pumping and the RR basin.
Turns out that Kansas - the downstream Kansas - was getting increasingly annoyed with Nebraska, claiming that it was underdelivering water to it. Kansas felt that Nebraska's pumping of groundwater from the alluvial aquifers - not the Ogallala Aquifer - bordering the river was depleting the river flow because the aquifers were essentially sucking in river water. This groundwater should be counted towards Nebraska's RR allocation. Nebraska said no, because groundwater was not part of the compact. Kansas also complained that increased pumping from the Ogallala Aquifer were drawing water from the headwaters streams that fed the RR. So water that should have been going into tributaries was going to irrigation in Nebraska.
The Judge Speaketh
All this went to SCOTUS, whose Special Master, Judge Vincent McKusick (a lawyer and engineer), said that: 1) groundwater was included in the compact (Nebraska loses); and 2) the original streamflow calculation - the 'virgin water' could not be recalculated to include groundwater (Kansas loses). Here is what Judge McKusick said:
Nebraska’s assertion that the Compact does not restrict ground water pumping because it never mentions ground water misses a critical fact: Although the Compact never uses the word “ground water”, streamflow, which the Compact fully allocates, comes from both surface runoff and ground water discharge. Interception of either of those streamflow sources can cause a State to receive more than its Compact allocation and violate the Compact. Thus, the comprehensive definition of virgin water supply, even without use of the express term “ground water”, requires a conclusion that, as a matter of law, a State can violate the Compact through excessive pumping of ground water hydraulically connected to the Republican River and its tributaries.
It should be noted here that pumping in northwestern Kansas depletes some of the RR basin's headwater streams, so as Ashworth (204) notes, Kansas is not free of guilt in this issue. Maybe Kanas v. Kansas is forthcoming?
What ultimately happened was that the U.S. Geological Survey, arguably the foremost groundwater modeling agency in the world, would develop a stream-aquifer computer model to quantify the interchange between the surface water and groundwater in the RR basin.
The three states settled in 2002. Nebraska agreed to limit wells in the basin and install meters on all existing wells.
The following is from a USGS publication.
The Takeaway
So what's the significance of the Republican River settlement? As Ashworth explains (208) there is now precedent in interstate law for recognizing that groundwater extraction in one state can affect the water supply of another state and that states can be held liable for damages caused to their neighboring states. It's now a matter of law that falling groundwater tables can deplete streamflow.
It took 60 years but those who committed the 'original sin' (I'm being facetious here) of neglecting groundwater in the Republican River Compact have achieved redemption. It's amazing what we have learned about groundwater and surface water in that period. Those intrepid 1942 souls could not have dreamed of the knowledge that would be available in 2002.
And all of the above, my children, is why I find Western USA water issues so fascinating, and perhaps, so frustrating.
"Science and law should never be adversaries. When they quarrel - as they often do over the Ogallala - lawyers are the only winners." - William Ashworth, Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the Great Plains, p. 2008
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