MINUTES OF THE
NEBRASKA NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION MEETING
OCTOBER 26, 2000
Those in attendance were:
| Richard Jiskra, Chair | Roger Korrell, Member |
| Joseph Hergott, Member | Wayne Madsen, Member |
| Don Larson, Member | Frank Bartak, Member |
| Vince Kramper, Member | Rich Torpin |
| Beverly Donaldson, Member | Dennis Schueth |
| Roy Stewart, Member | Stan Staab |
| Wayne Davis, Member | Bobbie Kruz-Wickham |
| LeRoy Pieper, Member | Dayle Williamson, Staff |
| Robert Hahn, Member | Jim Cook, Staff |
| Richard Mercer, Member | Tom Pesek, Staff |
| Don Roberts, Member | Gayle Starr, Staff |
| Jim Van Marter, Member |
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Commission Chair,
Richard Jiskra, at approximately 10:00 a.m. in the meeting room of the Lower
Platte South NRD in Lincoln.
NOTICE OF THE MEETING
Notice was placed in the LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR on
OCTOBER 18, 2000, notifying the public of the meeting.
INFORMATIONAL MATERIAL
The following items of
informational material were distributed during the course of the meeting and a
copy of each is attached to the file copy of the minutes.
MINUTES
Motion
was made by Kramper and seconded by Roberts to approve the minutes of the
September 27, 2000, Commission meeting as distributed. Motion carried.
Aye: Madsen, Van Marter, Stewart, Hahn, Roberts, Hergott,
Davis, Donaldson, Mercer, Pieper, Bartak, Larson, Kramper, Korell, Jiskra
Nay: None
Not Present: Johannes
EXPENDITURES
An expenditure report concerning the various funds administered by the
Commission was made available to Commission members and was made a part of the
record of these minutes.
AGENCY REPORT
Dayle
Williamson reported that Roger Patterson and Ann Bleed had spent a significant
amount of time on the Nebraska-Wyoming negotiations and they will become very
time-consuming as the December deadline nears.
Williamson also discussed the carbon sequestration issue and the
on-going efforts on the Cooperative Agreement and that a two-year extension is
being considered at the present time.
Dayle also reviewed the schedule for the agency open house to be held in
the afternoon. He noted that the
Commission members would be meeting with Governor Johann’s in the Agriculture
Department conference room at 1:30 and that the agency open house would be from
2:00 to 4:00 p.m.
ADVISOR’S COMMENTS
Rich
Torpin, representing the Natural Resources Conservation Service, distributed a
report and briefly commented on the NRCS budget situation, the drought
situation, the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, and the Environmental
Quality Improvement Program.
Dennis
Schueth, Manager of the Upper Elkhorn NRD and the current chair of the Manager’s
Committee, briefly reviewed several issues that the managers will be addressing
at their November 1 meeting in O’Neill.
ENVIRONMENTAL TRUST
Vince Kramper and Richard
Mercer briefly reported on Environmental Trust activities and indicated that
the Application Review Committee would be starting their work in the very near
future and that the money available would be able to fund only a small portion
of the applications. Mercer indicated
that Mary Harding, the Trust Director, was beginning work on the Foundation
that was authorized by the last session of the Legislature.
PLATTE
RIVER ISSUES
Jim Cook briefly reviewed
the recent cooperative agreement activities and noted that Dayle Williamson was
chairing the committee working on an extension of the Cooperative Agreement
activities.
REPUBLICAN BASIN ISSUES
Jim
Cook briefly reviewed the decisions recently handed down by the Special Master. He explained that the significant decisions
were that the Special Master had indicated that the trial should be in about
two and half years instead of the five to six years that Nebraska desired, that
all groundwater that impacted streamflow was covered by the compact and that
the parties that had requested to be Amici (friends of the court) would not be
allowed to be direct parties to the lawsuit.
He added that one significant question to be answered was what
groundwater wells actually impact the streamflow and that it might require a
technical study similar to the CoHyst Study currently underway in the Platte
River Basin.
COMPREHENSIVE
PLANNING COMMITTEE
Robert
Hahn indicated that the committee had met earlier this morning and that Rich
Torpin of NRCS had provided a presentation on the Carbon Sequestration issue
and the activities that NRCS is involved with on that issue. He also indicated that Steve Gaul had
provided an update on Planning and Assistance activities and Mahendra Bansal
had discussed Data Bank activities including some information technology
developments that are likely to take place over the next several years. He added that as a result of Dan Wiley’s
request at the last Commission meeting the staff would be working with him and
county weed officials in the Panhandle to see if the weed infestation areas can
be added as a GIS layer.
Rich Kern briefed the
committee on the progress being made on the CoHyst Study. Kern indicated that as a result of the
group’s work they had discovered that there were additional areas that needed
further study and that the group was working on those additional study areas
and had submitted a request to the Environmental Trust for additional
funding.
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Joe
Hergott indicated that the committee had met yesterday afternoon and had
reviewed the Resources Development Fund status and a semi-annual review of
projects as well as a status report on the Small Watersheds Flood Control Fund.
He explained that the staff
had solicited bids for the auctioning of two properties in the Swan Creek
Watershed in January and had received three bids that the committee had
reviewed. Motion was made by Hergott
and seconded by Madsen to accept the bid of Don Vrana (1.49 percent of the sale
price if the high bid is accepted and 0 dollars if the high bid is rejected)
for the auction of the Homolka tract (154.4 acres) at Swan Creek Site 9 and the
Deke tract (160 acres) at Swan Creek Site 31.
Motion carried.
Aye: Van Marter, Stewart, Hahn,
Roberts, Hergott, Davis, Donaldson, Mercer, Pieper, Bartak, Larson,
Kramper, Korell, Madsen, Jiskra
Nay: None
Not Present: Johannes
Hergott said that Gayle
Starr had distributed status reports for the Soil & Water Conservation
Fund, Republican Basin Water Meter fund, the Natural Resources Enhancement Fund
and the Water Well Decommissioning Fund.
Jim Cook explained that he
had attended a hearing of the Natural Resources Committee in Grand Island on
November 18 and had testified on the Water Banking and Leasing proposals. He added that it appeared as though the
committee would not be taking any action on these topics during the next legislative
session. Cook also indicated that the
agency had submitted seven separate legislative proposals to the Governor’s
office for their review. He added that
the proposals were primarily related to water rights issues and were primarily
dealing with minor corrective type issues.
NEXT
MEETING
The next meeting of the Commission will be December 6
& 7, 2000 in Lincoln.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at approximately
11:10 a.m.
_____________________________________ ________________________________________
Chairman Director of Natural Resources