Water Vote Bucks Conservation
By Kevin Welch, Amarillo Globe-News, Texas
Mar. 14–Water users in the northern Panhandle will be able to pump more water than others in the region.
Board members of the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District voted unanimously Tuesday to allow water users in the district to draw down the Ogallala Aquifer by up to 2 percent each year. That would use 50 percent of existing water in 25 years, unlike the goals of the regional water planning group. The Panhandle Water Planning Group wants to deplete no more than 50 percent of the water in the aquifer in 50 years instead.
“The 50 years was a stated goal,” said Dale Hallmark, acting manager of the North Plains district. “That gave us something to start with, to talk about.”
The move could complicate water planning efforts for most of the Panhandle.
“We’ll just have to work through it,” said C.E. Williams, president of the planning group.
Residents in the northern Panhandle will be able to pump more water. North Plains Groundwater Conservation District encompasses all or part of Dallam, Hartley, Sherman, Moore, Hansford, Hutchinson, Ochiltree and Lipscomb counties. North Plains Groundwater Conservation District
The district encompasses all or part of Dallam, Hartley, Sherman, Moore, Hansford, Hutchinson, Ochiltree and Lipscomb counties. Williams is also manager of the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District, which covers much of the Panhandle southeast of the NPGCD. Its rules allow users to pump one acre foot of water per year to try to use only half the existing water in 50 years.
“It’s a goal. I would hate to think there would be that much difference in the districts,” Williams said.
An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, enough to cover one acre of land with one foot of water.
The PGCD usage goal is almost half of the northern district’s.
“We also have a 1.25-percent decline trigger,” he said. “It causes us to look at localized areas of decline.”
While the NPGCD set the usage to cover the entire district, previous discussion had farmers irrigating in the western part of the district, such as in Hartley County, getting to use 2 percent and ranchers in the east limited to 1 percent.
Steve Stevens, representing Mesa Water, asked for whatever rules the NPGCD passed to be applied across the entire district. Mesa has water rights in the eastern part of the district in Lipscomb and Ochiltree counties.
The North Plains district is also in the midst of trying to get water users to report how much they pumped last year so the rules can be enforced. It recently sent out about 450 letters to landowners and farmers who rent land, telling them the Jan. 31 deadline to report water production is well passed, said Sabrina Leven, permitting and database coordinator for the district.
The letters tell those not in compliance there is a potential penalty of $1,500 and an additional $50 per day starting from March 2. The responses have flooded in.
The district processed reports for more than 300 water meters Monday.
“And this morning has not been any slower,” Leven said Tuesday.
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