The Ground Water Management and Protection Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 46-701 through 46-753) outlines the requirements for NeDNR to annually evaluate the expected long-term availability of hydrologically connected water supplies. This evaluation is intended to identify when existing water uses may have insufficient water supplies now or in the future, such that integrated management planning efforts are required to be initiated. Completion of the annual evaluation is not required for river basins, subbasins, or reaches for which an integrated management plan is either being developed or already exists. At this time, all of the Natural Resources Districts throughout the state are currently participating in either a required or voluntary integrated management plan and the NeDNR does not have new information that would suggest that conducting the annual evaluation in 2018 through 2025 would result any different conclusions than those that were reached in the 2017 annual evaluation. Therefore, a comprehensive annual evaluation was not conducted for 2018 through 2025.
If in the future NeDNR has reason to believe that a reevaluation may lead to a different determination as to whether a river basin, subbasin, or reach is fully or over-appropriated, NeDNR may perform an evaluation at that time.
Below are links to the 2017 annual evaluation and abbreviated 2018 through 2025 annual evaluations.
2017 Report
View Report Chapters
Report Summary and Table of Contents
Blue River Basins
Lower Niobrara River Basin
Lower Platte River Basin
Missouri Tributary Basins
Basin Summaries and Results
Appendix A - Nebraska Administrative Code Title 457 Chapter 24
Appendix B - Public Notices and Additional Information Received from Interested Parties
Appendix C - Computation of Rate and Volume of Stream Depletion by Wells
Appendix D - Net Irrigation Requirement
Appendix E - Development of Groundwater Irrigated Acres per Well
Appendix F - Basic Assumptions Used in Development of the Department of Natural Resources Proposed Method to Determine Whether a Stream and the Hydrologically Connected Groundwater Aquifers are Fully Appropriated
Additional information and data from the 2017 FAB report can be accessed HERE