NRD’s integrated management plan updated

Upper Republican Natural Resources District board members adopted a revised integrated management plan for the district that takes effect Sept. 27. 

The district’s IMP and accompanying technical manual spells out the strategies needed to help keep Nebraska and the URNRD in compliance with the compact settlement between Kansas and Colorado. 

This marks the fifth version of the IMP adopted by the district. 

The first one was adopted in 2005 after the Republican Basin was designated as a fully appropriated river basin in 2004. That designation came as a result of the 2002 settlement of a 1998 lawsuit filed by Kansas against Nebraska and Colorado over the use of streamflow and groundwater in the Republican Basin. 

Revised IMP versions were later adopted in 2008, 2010 and 2016. 

The new IMP includes changes related to a Republican River Basin-wide Plan adopted in 2019. The plan integrates the management of surface water and groundwater in the basin. 

That plan was developed over a five-year period (2014-2019) with collaboration from the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, the four NRDs in the Republican Basin and a 42-member advisory council of stakeholders.

The revised IMP also incorporates revised Nebraska accounting procedures to determine compliance by the URNRD.

Along with that, changes were made to incorporate management procedures used by the Republican River Compact Administration. The RRCA administers compliance of the compact, with  representatives from Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado.

The number one goal of the revised IMP is to “maximize URNRD’s efficient and beneficial consumptive use of the available water supply, increase certainty for long-range planning of water supplies, and increase collaboration among all water users in URNRD.”