Lower Loup NRD Board Okays 2,623 New Irrigated Acres
Applications for a total of 2,623 new irrigated acres in the North Loup River, Middle Loup and Beaver Creek Sub-Basins have been approved by the Lower Loup Natural Resources District Board of Directors.
NRD General Manager Russell Callan said that there were 67 applications for new irrigation, 23 in the North Loup River Basin, 19 in the Middle Loup River Basin and 25 in the Beaver Creek Basin. He said that the total irrigated acres requested in the combined basins was 4,099.09 acres. Callan said the average application for the new irrigation development requested 61.67 acres and the average application ranking was 272.42 points.
At their meeting October 25th, the Lower Loup NRD Board of Directors unanimously approved a recommendation from the LLNRD Water Resources Committee to approve applications for new irrigated acres, up to and including, the last application that meets or exceeds the limit initially approved for that basin. Therefore, an additional 123.32 new irrigated acres over the initial 2,500 were approved by the Board across the three basins. Letters of approval or denial have been mailed out to all applicants.
LLNRD Assistant General Manager Tylr Naprstek said applications for new irrigation were ranked using criteria approved by the NRD Board when irrigated acres had been previously granted. The criteria included the stream depletion factors, the status of groundwater and surface water, the type of acre being developed, the number of acres being developed, and the soil classification.
To view a table of new irrigated acres by county, click here..
