Irrigation shutdowns or reductions in the Upper Republican NRD to comply with the Republican River Compact have been avoided by pumping the equivalent of less than 4” per acre at the Rock Creek Augmentation Project in Dundy County.

Increasing stream flows in Rock Creek, a tributary of the Republican River, wrapped up Thursday after about 11 weeks of operation. It was the first time the project had been used since 2017 to maintain compliance with the compact that includes Kansas and Colorado. The project is funded by the URNRD’s occupation tax on irrigated acres and was also used in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

 Operating the Rock Creek project and NCORPE will help meet the State of Nebraska’s obligation to make 57,000 acre feet of irrigation water available to Kansas Bostwick Irrigation District in Harlan County Lake. NCORPE is an augmentation project in Lincoln County roughly three times larger than Rock Creek that is jointly operated by the URNRD, Middle Republican, Lower Republican and Twin Platte NRDs. Pumping at NCORPE has also wrapped up to meet compact obligations after it delivered approximately 7,100 acre feet to Medicine Creek, also a tributary of the Republican River. The Rock Creek project delivered approximately 1,650 acre feet.

Lacking the augmentation projects, the URNRD and other NRDs in the Republican Basin would occasionally be forced to significantly reduce or prohibit irrigation on a large number of irrigated acres. The augmentation projects essentially repurpose water that would otherwise be used to irrigate crops to increase stream flow when needed for compact compliance.

At the Rock Creek property, the URNRD owns 5,051 acres that it retired from irrigation in 2012 and 2013 and seeded to grass for grazing. Including the recently completed stream augmentation, 42,950 acre feet have been pumped from the Rock Creek property since it was retired from irrigation, compared to the estimated 72,190 acre feet that would have been pumped from 2012-2026 on the property assuming 12”/acre annually for crop irrigation.