U.S. Water News Online
CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- To help their downstream neighbors in Nebraska, water users along the North Platte River in east-central Wyoming will face more restrictions due to the continued drought, now stretching into its sixth year.
Because of the needs of irrigators and water consumers in the Inland Lakes of western Nebraska and due to continued low runoff forecasts, Wyoming State Engineer Patrick Tyrrell announced that water use will be limited to holders of "senior" rights older than Dec. 6, 1904, upstream from Guernsey Reservoir.
The limits will remain in place until May 1.
The restrictions will allow four Nebraska Panhandle lakes -- Big and Little Lake Alice, Winters Creek Lake and Lake Minatare -- to accrue water they are entitled to under a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Irrigators, municipalities and other water users holding rights later than 1904, known as "junior" rights holders, must rely on alternate sources of water, Tyrrell said.
Those options could include seeking temporary agreements with other rights holders or asking the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees the reservoirs, for temporary supplies.
Under most water laws in the West, the right to use or store water is based on the date a water right was filed -- the "first in time, first in right" doctrine.
A "call," which is an administrative restriction that can vary by water-rights date, is issued when flows are low to protect rights of senior holders.
On Feb. 10, Tyrrell announced that use of North Platte water between Pathfinder and Guernsey was limited to those who held rights of April 20, 1923, or earlier. The new restrictions, with the 1904 cutoff, went into effect April 4.
Since February, users upstream from Pathfinder have been restricted to the 1904 date -- the year the reservoir was permitted -- and will continue to be until May 1. Irrigators along the upper reaches of the river in Colorado are also limited, Tyrrell said.
"On a positive note, the basin above Pathfinder had above-average precipitation last month, so the runoff forecast in that area has improved," he said. "Unfortunately, the improvement is not sufficient enough to avoid continued priority regulation.
"Less than average precipitation has occurred in the basin below Pathfinder Reservoir, so it remains to be seen whether the runoff will fill Inland Lakes ownership during the month of April."
In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that the Nebraska lakes have a priority date of Dec. 6, 1904 -- same as for users above Pathfinder -- and are allowed to accumulate up to 46,000 acre-feet of water each water year, which begins in October. Once those lakes reach that amount, or if May 1 arrives -- the start of peak runoff season -- any restrictions on junior rights holders usually are lifted.
At the end of March, the lakes had about 11,800 acre-feet, Tyrrell said.
"If they were to fill in April, which appears to be highly unlikely, then we would relax that call on the lower river back to the Guernsey date of 1923," he said.
If forecasts for water ownership in the North Platte Project are less than 1.1 million acre-feet for an upcoming summer, the state engineer is directed to impose restrictions for irrigators and users who tap into the federally controlled reservoirs along the river.
As of April 5, the forecast was for 943,300 acre-feet.
In 2002 and 2004, a call also was placed on junior water rights holders because of a shortage of water for the Inland Lakes, Tyrrell said.
"This is the fourth year in a row that forecast is less than 1.1 million," Tyrrell said. "What happens is I have to face this automatic call. I don't have to respond to it automatically, but I certainly have to take it seriously."
Although runoff forecasts in 2003 would have spurred a call that year as well, Tyrrell resisted issuing one because a late-season blizzard added greatly to snowpack.
"We believed that that event would fill the Inland Lakes and Guernsey Reservoir, and we were right," he said.
Return to the U.S. Water News' past archives page Or Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage
Editor@uswaternews.com
*Your Name:
*Your Email:
*Friend's Email:
Use a comma to separate e-mail addresses:
*Your Comments:
Hi, I thought you might like to read this article.
*Required Fields