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<br />Surface Water <br /> <br /> <br />Streamflow of the <br />Big Blue River near the <br />Nebraska-Kansas line aver- <br />ages some 561,000 acre <br />feet annually. (8) The gag- <br />ing station on the Big Blue <br />River at Barneston, Nebras- <br />ka has been in operation <br />since June, 1932 and has <br />the longest period of re- <br />cord of stations in the <br />basin. The variation in an- <br />nual runoff for this station <br />is shown in Figure 8. Gag- <br />ing station locations are <br />shown on Figure 5 and <br />Table 5 shows pertinent data collected at these sites. The long-term average annual runoff at the <br />lower gaging station is less than ten percent of the average annual precipitation. This indicates <br />a considerable amount of precipitation is lost to evaporation and transpiration. The average <br />runoff per square mile increases measurably downstream reflecting the accretion due to <br />increasing precipitation, somewhat steeper topography, and some interception of the ground <br />water aquifers. Diversions for existing water rights and ground water pumping deplete the <br />surface water. <br /> <br />Analysis of available data shows that fifty percent of the time the base flow at the state <br />line is only one-third of the average annual discharge in cubic feet per second. This means that <br />during the remaining fifty percent of the time, over eighty percent of the annual flow volume <br />occurs. This indicates quite variable runoff with much of it occurring as flood flow. Records <br />show a total, as of December 31,1964, of some 50,000 acres in the Big Blue Basin had surface <br />water rights for irrigation using stream bank pumps. Surface water rights f<;>,r Jrrigation in the <br />basin total over 400 cubic feet per second.(2) A reconnaissance field survey by the <br />Department of Water Resources indicates that only about 50 percent of the land with water <br />rights is being actively irrigated. Reasons for the lag in this irrigation are the uncertainty of <br />the water supply and the fact that the flood plain is subject to quite frequent flooding. There <br />are also power rights of nearly 2,000 second feet of which four plants with a total <br />appropriation of 1,650 second feet are still in operation. Power rights in the basin date back <br />to 1860 while the earliest right for irrigation purposes was secured in 1895. Few irrigation <br />rights were secured until the dry period of the thirties, and an additional surge in the' <br />procurement of surface water rights for irrigation took place in the late fifties. There are over <br />500 appropriators using surface water from the Big Blue River for irrigation. Table 6 shows <br />the extent of these rights by stream and the approximate acreage involved, <br /> <br />29 <br />