“Local Solutions to Drought: Groundwater Transfers in Nebraska ” by Renata Rimsaite at the 2023 Water for Food Global Conference. A recording of the presentation can be found on the conference playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSBeKOIXsg3JNyPowwJj6NDSpx4vlnCYj.

1. Local Solutions to Drought:
Groundwater Transfers in Nebraska
Renata Rimšaitė
May 8, 2023
Water for Food Global Conference
University of Nebraska, Lincoln

2. Average Annual
Precipitation
Source: The Groundwater Atlas of Nebraska (2013)

3. Nebraska’s 23 Natural Resources Districts
• Locally elected boards of directors
• Regulatory power
• Long-term groundwater sustainability
• Tools depend on local hydrogeology, include
• Groundwater use reports
• Metering
• Moratoria on well-drilling & irrigated acres
• Groundwater allocations
• Groundwater transfers

4. WATER TRANSFER –
reallocation of water
across space & time
• Provide flexibility & lower risk in ag production
• Move water from lower to higher value uses
• Don’t compromise water needs
When carefully designed:

5. Economic basis
Enabling environment
Transfer implementation

6. Groundwater transfers in Nebraska

7. Transfer types
FORMAL TRANSFERS – transfer
of a property right
• Transfer of certified irrigated
acres
INFORMAL TRANSFERS –
transfer without a property right
• Pooling – joint operation of
multiple irrigated tracts
• Pumping groundwater onto a
neighboring parcel
Admin process simpler for
informal transfers

8. Environmental &
conservation
goals
No net increase in stream
depletion
No net change in stream
depletion
Formal vs informal transfers
• Transfer direction
• Transfer boundaries

9. Other variability
Transaction costs
Transfer size
Transfer frequency
Terminology

10. Groundwater transfers
in Nebraska
• Highlights:
• Economic basis, enabling environment, and
implementation processes need to be
understood
• Highly regulated and diverse
• Help match spatial hydrologic complexity

11. Thank you!
Renata Rimšaitė
Senior Program Manager
Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute
University of Nebraska
rrimsaite@nebraska.edu
Acknowledgment: This research was supported by the
United States Department of Agriculture under contract
numbers OCE 58-0111-20-007, OCE 58-0111-21-007, and
OCE 58-0111-22-018.