Water Management

Quantity Rules & Regulations - Water Development Areas

There are three major types of Water Development Areas in the Lower Platte North NRD:

In addition, the entire district is considered a "Level One" area, and all operators of irrigation, municipal, and industrial wells are required to be certified every four years.

Irrigation Development Areas

Restricted Development Areas

The NRD's Restricted Development Areas encompass portions of the uplands region in Butle, Dodge and Saunders counties. Drilling of new wells and/or expansion of water use served by existing wells is restricted in these areas and requires offsets and a variance from the NRD. This applies to all high-capacity wells and selected low-capacity wells. (To request a variance form for the Restricted Development Areas, please contact us at (402) 443-4675 or lpnnrd@lpnnrd.org)

The moratorium was declared to protect current water users due to the NRD’s concerns that these fragile aquifers could not sustain future water development. Portions of this area are composed of glacial till material, which results in a number of “pocket aquifers” that are hydrologically distinct from surrounding areas. In these pocket aquifers, additional high-capacity wells can have a much more significant impact on other water users than they would within a larger aquifer. Other portions are served by bedrock aquifers, which can be highly variable in both quantity and quality of groundwater.

Limited Development Areas

The NRD's Limited Development Areas cover most of the Shell Creek, Platte Valley and Todd Valley aquifer regions. These areas were placed under a state-imposed moratorium in December 2008 when the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources preliminarily declared the Lower Platte Basin to be "fully-appropriated." The state later reversed that preliminary declaration and the moratorium areas were opened back up to limited irrigation development.

Initially, the NRD held two request periods in summer and fall 2009 to allow irrigators to apply for a limited number of variances for new wells or expanded irrigation (up to a total of 2,500 acres a year for the Limited Development Areas). However, due to a lower than expected number of applications, the NRD is now accepting variance requests on a continuous basis. Variance request forms for the Limited Development Areas are available in our Downloads section here.

Normal Development Areas

In the NRD's Normal Development Areas, there are no set restrictions on the number of new irrigated acres allowed per year. However, producers must have a well permit from the NRD before drilling a new well or expanding the acres irrigated by an existing well.

More Information

For more information concerning ground water quantity management, also review Groundwater Quantity Rules and Regulations – Level Management Areas.

The full text of the NRD's GWMA Rules and Regulations is available as a PDF in our Downloads section.

For more information on the NRD's Water Development Areas, contact Larry Angle, Water Resources Manager.