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<br />G 1'1 n ;, It (! <br />'lit) " <br /> <br />Introduction <br /> <br />This report was prepa,ed to provide policy <br />decision'makers with information relevant to the <br />law of groundwater property rights and how <br />existing rights might be modified or clarilied by <br />iegislation, <br />Groundwater use in Nebraska has exploded <br />over the last two decades causing serious water <br />tabie declines in some areas, It has become clear <br />that groundwater supplies in Nebraska are not <br />inexhaustible, in consequence, numerous <br />strategies for regulating groundwater use and <br />managing groundwater supplies have been <br />suggested, The feasibility, and ultimate success, <br />of any groundwater management scheme, how- <br />ever, depends in large measure on the under- <br />lYing set of groundwater property rights, The <br />groundwater property rights system determines <br />the constitutional parameters of permissibie <br />groundwater use regulation, The groundwater <br />property rights system also determines how the <br />benefits of groundwater supplies are to be <br />shared in those areas where no regulations are in <br />effect. The nature of the groundwater property <br />rights system is, thus, a very important element of <br />the state's groundwater policy, <br />A good deal of misunderstanding currentiy <br />surrounds groundwater property rights law, In <br />part, this is because the iimited number of <br />Nebraska Supreme Court pronouncements on <br />the subiect have not always been consistent. In, <br />large part, however, the misunderstanding of <br />Nebraska law can be attributed indirectly to the <br />abundance of the state's groundwater supplies, <br />Only recently have conflicts occurred which <br />make it clear that a landowner's right to capture <br />groundwater is not unlimited, <br />Chapter One of this report summarizes <br />current Nebraska law by tracing the develop- <br />ment of the so-called"Nebraska Rule of Reason- <br />able Use" and by discussing relevant Nebraska <br />statutes, Chapter Two analyzes the practical <br />effects of existing law, with special emphasis on <br />the limits of current law as a means of protecting <br />public or private rights to groundwater use, <br /> <br />Chapter Three responds to the analysis set <br />forth in the first two chapters by developing <br />thirteen alternatives for legislative consider- <br />ation, Each alternat"lve 'IS descr'lbed in detail and <br />indications of how it could be enacted are pro- <br />vided, Where appropriate, reference is made to <br />the law of other states, In particular, short case <br />studies have been inCluded for some alternatives <br />to alert the reader to states that have extensive <br />experience legislating under particular ground. <br />water property rights systems, Generally, the <br />case studies also demonstrate the limitations of <br />the several alternatives, <br />Th~ external impacts of adopting each altern' <br />ative also are addressed in Chapter Three, In- <br />cluded are the physical'hydrologic and environ' <br />mental impacts and the socio-economic impacts <br />of adopting each alternative, The degree of detail <br />possible in these impacts analyses varies greatly <br />from alternative to alternative, with some having <br />fairly apparent impacts and others having im, <br />pacts that are almost impossible to assess, <br />The final chapter, Chapter Four, is devoted to <br />explaining the relationship between this report <br />and all other policy issue reports produced or to <br />be produced as part of the State Water Planning <br />and Review Process, Relationships are develop' <br />ed for many of the studies being conducted, <br />particularly the March, 1982 Ground Water <br />Reservoir Management Study approved by the <br />Commission, The value of Chapter Four to the <br />decision'maker is to alert him or her to how other <br />issues can be affected by decisions regarding <br />property rights in groundwater, <br /> <br />III <br />