The water levels at the Pathfinder storage reservoir for the Upper North Platte River are well below the 1,100,000 acre-foot mark. This value represents a full North Platte Ownership supply, and the value for February storage is 705,364. This has prompted the State Engineer’s Office to administer the first call on water rights for the 2013 season.
At the start of February, the water and snow water equivalent was below what the Engineer’s Office knows to be a safe flow to meet all the needs of Nebraska and Wyoming throughout the irrigation and summer months. All of the water that flows past Saratoga in February will be stored at Pathfinder reservoir. In early March the storage and runoff forecasts will be reevaluated and then looked at again in April.
“Think of a snowball,” Matt Hoobler, the North Platte River Coordinator said by phone interview. “Some snowballs are very full of water and can compress into a good throwing snowball. Other snow, like the snow we have in the higher elevations, is very dry and dusty like. You can’t get it to pack into a ball”
The survey that the State Engineer’s Office uses to determine the flows is based upon a snow pack and a snow water equivalent.
“This is some of the driest snow I have seen,” Hoobler said.
One million acre foot is considered full storage. Three years ago the storage was three million and two years ago the level was considered full. Now that conditions are back to drier than normal, the State Engineer’s Office knows that in order to meet the demands in the irrigation season, it will have to administer the water rights at least for the month of February.
Back in 2002-2003 the Valley and river showed the driest seasons on record. If the town of Saratoga hadn’t taken pro-active steps for the towns’ water supply, Saratoga would be in real trouble now. In 2001 the Decree between Nebraska and Wyoming water usage was modified and at that point Saratoga drew the towns’ water directly from the river. After those two dry years, Saratoga knew it would have to look at other options for water. Now the town gets its supply from wells drilled into aquifers for a supply that does not depend upon the rivers’ flow.
At this point of the season the call on water will not affect the town or the Valley’s residents. If the call is administered again in March, the effect will still be minimal. The April call would be the first that the Valley residents would be affected, as this is the start of the irrigation season in the upper Valley, according to Hoobler.
“This decree was modified to make certain that the appropriators junior to Pathfinder reservoir will have enough water in the case that we are still drier than normal at the start of irrigation season,” Hoobler said.
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