LENRD chairman one of many in groundwater allocation violation

NORFOLK, Neb. -- Wednesday marked the beginning of the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resource District's public hearings for violations against water allocations.

The LENRD began to hear testimony from well owners in the region Wednesday, the start of two days of public hearings. Those testifying have a nine-acre-inch allocation for the 2022 year, but for one reason or another, went over that amount. LENRD general manager Mike Sousek says the purpose of these hearings is to discover why.

"They signed a document...to live by this nine-inch allocation," Sousek explained. "It (the hearing) has given them an opportunity to address the board and state their case on why they shouldn't have a penalty, or why they went over."

Sousek said almost 25 well owners would testify between Wednesday and Thursday. Each well owner is facing the same penalty: a one-to-one ratio reduction for two years. As an example, if the well owner went one inch over allocation, they would have one inch reduced from their allocation for the next two years. 

One person of note who testified Wednesday was Mark Hall, who is the chairman of the LENRD. Hall was over his allocation by 2.42-acre-inches.

Hall said this violation was due to a misunderstanding of the allocation rules. Hall was also joined by a tenant farmer named Keaton Clark.

Besides the nine-inch allocation, well owners also have a two-acre-inch allocation for cover crops. Hall questioned if two inches were not in violation as there was no distinction of when the cover crop's allocation could be used in a season.

He also questioned if some of the inches not used from the 2021 harvest could then roll over to this year's season. Both of these were shot down by assistant general manager Brian Buckner, who argued the intention of the board was to have a set yearly amount and that the allocations established for cash crop and cover crop were intended to remain separate. 

Hall concluded his testimony by stating going over the allocation was a mistake and asked for leniency.

"We'd just like to express to the board that we feel like we tried to meet the intent of the regulations," Hall said. "We feel we did, by mistake, run over the full allocation, but we'd like to ask for leniency please."

The LENRD approved a 2.42-inch reduction penalty on Mark Hall in an 8-2 vote.

Joel Hansen, Gary Loftis, Dennis Schultz, Matt Steffen, Scott McHenry, Kurt Janke, Jay Reikofksi and Rod Zohner voted in favor of the penalty, while Chad Korth and Jerry Allemann voted no.