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<br />CHAPTER 4. IRRIGATION <br /> <br />Introduction <br /> <br />The application of water on hay and crop land to supplement pre- <br />cipitation Degan almost as early as settlement. By 1860 four mi les of <br />canals had been constructed near North Platte to divert streamflow for <br />irrigation. Numerous small systems were developed during the fol lowing <br />years untl I about 9,000 acres had been developed by 1889. Since then <br />there has been a steady growth, with rapid expansions in each drouth <br />period. <br /> <br />The drouth in the 1890's coupled with the enaction in 1895 of a <br />statute establishing a fi ling system for water rights brought a mass <br />of filings for rights to 'divert water from streams. The normal stream- <br />flows during the irrigation season In western Nebraska became greatly <br />overappropriated. A number of projects developed during this period <br />had to be abandoned soon after construction due to lack of a dependable <br />water supply. This situation pointed up the need for reservoirs to <br />store off-season flows. About this time a number of storage projects <br />were proposed, but construction was prevented due to legal and financial <br />difficulties, or deferred because greater and more uniform distribution <br />of rainfal I increased the production of dry land crops. <br /> <br />The Federal Reclamation Act of 1902 authorized the development <br />of projects to supply water to government lands being opened for <br />settlement. The North Platte Project, which Included construction of <br />the PathfInder Dam and canals to Irrigate lands in eastern Wyoming and <br />western Nebraska, was one of the early projects authorized. <br /> <br />About 1910 farmers began tapping the ground water aquifers for <br />Irrigation. The development of the internal combustion engine and its <br />application to tractors made irrigation by low head centrifugal pumps <br />practical. At first, irrigation from wel Is was limited to val ley lands <br />which had water-bearing gravels at shallow depths. <br /> <br />The growth of irrigation development was slow but steady unti I the <br />major drouth in the 1930's intensified irrigation Interest. Storage <br />project proposals made as early as the turn of the century were revised <br />and funded, assisted by enactment of the Nebraska Public Power and IrrI- <br />gation District Law in 1933. This resulted in the' construction of <br />facl Itties of the Platte Valley Public Power and Irrigation District <br />to supplement direct flow rights of several Irrigation systems and of <br />the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District to Irrigate <br />lands In Gosper, Phelps, and Kearney Counties. <br /> <br />Development of the turbine pump made Irrigation from deep wells <br />practicable and irrigation spread to the tablelands of western and <br />central Nebraska. The first big Increase in wel I development came in <br />1941 when about 1500 wel Is were Instal led. The drouth of the mid-1950's <br />brought another surge with the peak reached in 1955 when over 3500 wells <br />were instal led. Voluntary registration of irrigation wel Is began in <br /> <br />35 <br />