Abstract:
The Department has jurisdiction over all matters pertaining to surface water, rights for storage, irrigation, power, manufacturing, instream flows and other beneficial uses. This includes the distribution of available supply during times of water shortages and adjudication of established water rights. Any person who wishes to divert and use the waters of a natural stream or lake must first get a permit or water right from the Department. In water short areas of the state, the process for receiving a permit may include a formal hearing. These hearings are subject to review by the Nebraska Court of Appeals. Holders of water rights must use the water in accordance with the provisions written on the permit. Failure to so use the water will result in the Department conducting a hearing to cancel or annul the permit. This process is called an "adjudication" and is subject to review by the Nebraska Court of Appeals. SURFACE WATER PROGRAM During the last biennium (2001-2002 calendar years), DNR received 170 applications for new water appropriations, 155 applications or petitions for modification of existing water rights; held 81 adjudication hearings and 13 miscellaneous hearings; and cancelled 159 appropriations in full or in part. Currently there is a large backlog of applications and maps that need to be processed.
Water Division:
The State of Nebraska is divided in two water divisions by statute, denoted Water Division No. 1 and Water Division No. 2, respectively. Water Division No. 1 consists of all the lands of the state drained by the Platte Rivers and their tributaries lying west of the mouth of the Loup River; and also all other lands lying south of the Platte and South Platte that may be watered from other superficial or subterranean streams not tributary to the Platte River. Water Division No. 2 consists of all lands that may be watered from the Loup, White, Niobrara and Elkhorn Rivers, and Hat Creek and their tributaries, and those lands drained by the Platte River and its tributaries lying east of the mouth of the Loup River.
For convenience in the administration of the surface water laws and the distribution of water, the two water divisions have been subdivided into 12 water divisions, denoted 1-A, Platte River basin; 1-b, Republican River basin; 1-C, Little blue River basin; 1-D, big blue River basin; 1-E, Lodgepole Creek basin; 1-F, Nemaha River basin and Lower Missouri River and Tributary basins; 2-A, Loup River basin; 2-b Elkhorn River and Salt Creek basins; 2-C, Niobrara River basin; 2-D, White River and White Clay Creek basins; 2-E, Hat Creek basin; and 2-F, Upper Missouri River and Tributary basins.
Purpose:
Claims and Applications:
The appropriations have been arranged within each water division in downstream order by the location of their point of diversion, and then in order of priority for multiple appropriations with a common point of diversion. Appropriations which have sources of supply that are not directly tributary on the surface to the main stream are listed at the first part of each water division.
Docket and Application Numbers:
Appropriations having docket numbers (D-) refer to claims covering rights which were acquired under the law prior to April 4, 1895, or those on the Missouri River covered by the law passed in 1980. Those having applications numbers (A-) were filed to appropriate water under the law of 1895.
Ownership:
There is only one appropriator listed for each entry. However, certain appropriations may have more that one appropriator of record. More detailed information on the appropriator(s) is available from the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources.
Water Rights Grant:
The grant is listed in cubic feet per second (CFS) unless it is designated in acre-feet (AF). basically, storage rights are granted in acre-feet, diversions from streams are granted in cubic feet per second, and diversions from reservoirs are not quantified in either acre-feet or cubic feet per second. Nebraska law does not allow the Department of Natural Resources to limit the rate at which water may be diverted from or into storage. Diversions from streams are limited by statute to a maximum of one cubic foot per second for every seventy acres of land. In the tables concerning current water rights, the grant listed is the amount in effect at the time this database was acquired.