MINUTES OF THE
NEBRASKA
NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION MEETING
MARCH 27, 2003
Those
in attendance were:
Roger
Korell, Chair Richard
Jiskra, Member
Wayne
Madsen, Member Richard
Hadenfeldt, Member
Arlond
Garratt , Member Robert Hahn, Member
Jim
Van Marter, Member Bob
Hilske
Clint
Johannes , Member Scott Nelson
Wayne
Davis, Member Don
Meisner
LeRoy
Pieper, Member Eric Dove
Dan
Watermeier, Member Roger
Patterson, Director
Garry
Anderson, Member Tom
Pesek, Staff
Vince
Kramper, Member Gayle
Starr, Staff
Beverly
Donaldson, Member
The
meeting was called to order by Commission Chair, Roger Korell, at 9:00 a.m. in
the conference room of the Lower Platte South NRD in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Notice
of the meeting was placed in the LINCOLN JOURNAL & STAR on March 19, 2003,
notifying the public of the meeting.
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.
1.
Minutes
of the Program Committee Meeting.
2.
Water
Well Decommissioning Cash Fund Summary.
3.
Nebraska
Resources Development Fund Present Financial Status.
4.
Letter
from Lewis & Clark NRD requesting more funding for Powder Creek.
5.
Letter
from Nemaha NRD on Upper Little Nemaha Watershed Project.
6.
Status
of Small Watersheds Flood Control Fund.
7.
Soil
& Water Conservation Fund – Expenditures by Month, 1995-2003.
8.
Republican
Basin Water Meter Program.
9.
Natural
Resources Water Quality Fund and Distributions.
10.
Water
Well Decommissioning Cash Fund.
11.
DNR
Expenditures for January & February 2003.
12.
NRCS
Report to the NNRC and NARD.
It
was noted that there was an error in the voting in the last motion. Motion was made by Kramper and seconded by
Van Marter to approve the minutes as distributed with the correction
noted. Motion carried.
Aye: Hadenfeldt, Anderson, Kramper, Watermeier, Madsen, Van Marter,
Johannes, Hahn, Davis, Donaldson, Korell
Nay: None
Present,
Not Voting: Garratt, Pieper, Jiskra
Not
Present: Roberts, Hergott
It
was noted that the expenditure report covering funds administered by the
Commission for the months of January and February 2003, had been made available
to Commission members.
Steve
Chick, NRCS State Conservationist, distributed a report to the Commission and
briefly reviewed several items including the technical service provider
process, competitive sourcing procedures and the agency budget and personnel
situation.
Roger
Patterson briefly reviewed the water supply situation indicating that recent
snowfalls in Colorado and Wyoming had been helpful but that absent any
significant snowfalls and/or rainfalls, some irrigators in both the Platte
River and Republican River Basin would be significantly short of water. He added that the Department and the Bureau
of Reclamation would be working with surface water irrigators to try to make
the best of a difficult situation.
Patterson also explained that in addition to the earlier lawsuit filed
by the State of South Dakota regarding the Missouri River operations a new
lawsuit had been filed by American Rivers and other environmental interests to
compel the Corps of Engineers to operate the Missouri River in accordance with
the recommendations of the Fish & Wildlife Service. Patterson also commented briefly on the
agency budget and the legislative activities in that regard.
Patterson
indicated that he was a member of the Ranking Committee that had reviewed the
various requests for funding. Vince
Kramper added that the Environmental Trust would have about $700,000 more funds
for awards than they had anticipated because of higher than anticipated receipts and a grant that had been returned
and not utilized.
Patterson
indicated that the Platte River Cooperative Agreement Governance Committee had
hired a mediator in an attempt to resolve some of the differences between
committee members. He added that the
review of the science utilized in determining recommended flows on the Platte
River by the National Academy of Sciences should get started within the next
several months. Patterson explained
that the states had an opportunity to review the draft recommendation of the
special master on the Republican River lawsuit and it was hoped that the
Supreme Court might accept the settlement as early as May.
Patterson
explained that the Task Force was making good progress and that he anticipated
they would complete their work by the end of the year and have a package of
legislation ready for 2004. He added
that the Task Force had reached an agreement on some changes to the conjunctive
use law and that there had been significant discussions on the need to
determine when a basin might be fully appropriated. Clinton Johannes and LeRoy Pieper both noted the Task Force had
discussions regarding the need to close an area to further ground water well permits
while that area was being studied rather than the current process of studying
the area first and then closing it later, which allows a great number of wells
to be permitted before the official closing.
Robert
Hahn indicated that the sponsors of two Resources Development Fund projects had
submitted project proposals and that they would be briefing the Commission on
those two projects. Bob Hilske, Manager
of the Nemaha NRD and Assistant Manager, Scott Nelson, reviewed the Turkey Creek
Watershed Proposal in the Nemaha Natural Resources District. Don Meisner, representing the City of Ponca
and Eric Dove, the project engineer discussed the project proposal submitted by
the City of Ponca for a flood control project in that community.
Hahn
explained that the committee was recommending that three specific actions be
approved by the Commission. Motion
was made by Hahn and seconded by Kramper that the Commission obligate $32,195
to the Powder Creek Project effective immediately for Component 5 – Recreation
Facilities and Mitigation, increasing the total project obligation to
$498,760.00. Motion carried.
Aye: Anderson, Garratt, Kramper, Pieper, Watermeier, Madsen, Van
Marter, Johannes, Hahn, Davis, Jiskra, Donaldson, Hadenfeldt, Korell
Nay: None
Not Present: Roberts,
Hergott
Motion
was made by Hahn and seconded by Watermeier that the Commission obligate
$176,431.24 to the Upper Little Nemaha Watershed Project effective immediately
for the following components:
Component
9 - Design Sites 25, 61, & 31 $30,540.25
Component 10 - Construction
Sites 25, 61 & 31 129,616.54
Component 12 - Construction
Sites 42, 50, & 63 16,274.45
$176,431.24
increasing
the total project obligation to $3,516,548.52. Motion carried.
Aye: Garratt, Kramper, Pieper, Watermeier, Madsen, Van Marter,
Johannes, Hahn,
Davis, Jiskra,
Donaldson, Hadenfeldt, Anderson, Korell
Nay: None
Not Present: Roberts, Hergott
Motion
was made by Hahn and seconded by Garratt to approve the request of the
Papio-Missouri River NRD to increase the commitment for an easement on Tract 7
(Sunset Valley Golf Course) of the
Papio
Channel Project by $42,962.00 from $90,125.50 to $133,87.50 based on the
Douglas County District Court award of $266,175.00 dated January 30, 2003. Motion carried.
Aye: Johannes, Hahn, Davis, Jiskra, Donaldson, Hadenfeldt, Anderson,
Garratt, Kramper,
Pieper, Watermeier, Madsen, Van Marter, Korell
Nay: None
Not Present: Roberts, Hergott
LEGISLATIVE & BUDGET COMMITTEE
Arlond Garratt explained
that Dave Vogler had briefed the committee on natural resources legislation
including those bills that had been passed and signed by the Governor, those
bills that had been indefinitely postponed and several bills, which had been
combined into one piece of legislation for legislative consideration. He added that the committee was not
recommending any action on legislative matters. Garratt also indicated that Gayle Starr had reviewed the current
status of the agency budget including the Governor’s recommendations and the
committee’s preliminary budget proposal for the agency.
Jim
Van Marter called on Steve Gaul who
discussed the National Hydrographic Dataset project,
the
watershed boundary delineation project, a drought assistance application to the
Bureau of Reclamation, and the Carbon Sequestration Study.
Van
Marter also called on Mahendra Bansal who discussed and displayed some digital
ortho quarter quadrangles that are available on the agency web site and
reviewed the current status of the digitization of soil surveys.
Gayle
Starr explained that because of scheduling conflicts he was recommending that
the next Commission meeting be all on May 22.
He added that this meeting would include the annual Resources
Development Fund Project review but that final action on obligation of funds
for the next fiscal year could probably not be made then because the
Legislature would most likely not have finalized budgets by that time. It was agreed that a one-day meeting would
be acceptable and that the first meeting should start at 8:00 a.m. at the Lower
Platte South NRD office in Lincoln.
The
meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:20 a.m.
____________________________________ _____________________________________
Chair Director of Natural Resources