Post date: May 06, 2014 7:11:15 PM

2014 Big Mac inflows likely to be among 10 lowest

CNPPID officials say numbers may be benchmarks for future

Posted: Tuesday, May 6, 2014 12:00 pm / http://kearneyhub.com / By LORI POTTER Hub Staff Writer

HOLDREGE — Projected Lake McConaughy inflows of 550,000 acre-feet for the 2014 water year that ends in September would be the seventh smallest total in Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District history.

It also would mean that nine of the 10 worst years for inflows will have occurred since 2002, with the lowest in 2004 at 440,898 a-f. Also on the worst 10 list is 1956.

CNPPID Civil Engineer Cory Steinke gave his 2014 inflow estimate to Central directors at their meeting Monday in Holdrege and shared with the Hub a list of lake inflows for each of the past 73 years.

He pointed out that two recent extremely wet years, 2010 and 2011, are in the top 10 inflow years. The record was in 2011 at 2,615,110 a-f.

However, just two years later, 2013 became the ninth-lowest inflow year.

“The baselines are here to stay,” Steinke said, with the last decade’s low inflows more representative of what to expect for the future than inflows during the two extremely wet years.

Big Mac is Nebraska’s largest lake. Its water is used by irrigators on the Central and Nebraska Public Power District systems, as an environmental account managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to generate hydropower and cool NPPD’s Gerald Gentleman coal-fired power plant, to benefit wildlife habitat, and to provide recreation.

Monday, the lake held 1,036,500 a-f, which is 59 percent of full volume.

Steinke said inflows at Lewellan were 597 cubic feet per second, which is about 53 percent of normal for this time of the year. Data on the www.cnppid.com website this morning showed outflows of 1,000 cfs.

Water is being released to fill irrigation canals, but releases made for the spring migration season from USFWS environmental account water will end in a few days, Steinke said.

Snowpacks in Platte Basin areas of the Rocky Mountains are above average. However, federal reservoirs in the North Platte Basin of Wyoming have more than enough room to catch the 2014 runoff without sending extra water downstream to Lake McConaughy.

The South Platte Basin snowpack is at 145 percent of average.

CNPPID General Manager Don Kraus said Nebraska Department of Natural Resources officials have said there could be excess downstream flows in June or July. State, CNPPID and Tri-Basin Natural Resources District officials will discuss possibly diverting any excess water into Elwood Reservoir for groundwater recharge.

Also Monday, the board approved spending $389,700 to remove and replace an elevated irrigation flume, which now goes over Lost Creek northwest of Axtell, with a 42-inch underground pipeline next fall.

The 1,300-foot wood frame flume is original to the Central district. It was built in the late 1930s, Public Relations Coordinator Jeff Buettner said. It delivers irrigation water to 1,785 acres.

Also nearing completion is work on CNPPID’s new Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system. Buettner said the last update of the system that allows remote control of structures and operations was in the early to mid-1980s.

The board approved $17,600 to have two Survalent Technology Corp. engineers come for a week to work directly with Gothenburg Control Center operators and other staff. CNPPID Engineering Services Manager Eric Hixon said that will help get SCADA equipment and operators ready to handle downstream controls for irrigation season and new upstream controls for Kingsley Dam and the supply canal.

He added that other consultants from a Canada company will be in the district after Memorial Day to finish work on the SCADA security system.

In other business, the board:

- Was invited by Electrical Superintendent Devin Brundage to the June 13 open house to see renovations and additions made to the Gothenburg center. It will be part of the 5-8 p.m. Gothenburg Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event.

- Was told by Public Relations Assistant Holly Hiebert that Central’s new website may be ready to launch this week.

- Was reminded by Buettner that the July 15-18 Nebraska Water Tour will go to the North Platte Basin. Sponsors include CNPPID, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Water Center and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce, and Nebraska State Irrigation Association.