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<br />OJJ373 <br /> <br />1938. An act passed by the Legislature requIrIng the registration of <br />all new and existing irrigation wells became effective in September, <br />1957. By January 1, 1969,32,430 wells had been registered. It is <br />estimated, however, that in some areas up to 20 percent of the operating <br />wel Is are sti I I not registered. <br /> <br />Present Situation <br /> <br />Based on information collected in '967, it ~as estImated that about <br />3,355,000 acres were irrigated annually. This Is about 17 percent of <br />the land In the State that is classified as suitable. The estimated <br />distribution of irrigated land by basins and by suitability types Is <br />summarized in Table 17. Unpublished land use data prepared for the <br />Missouri River Basin Comprehensive Framework Study were used as a guide <br />in making the distribution estimates. About 2,065,000 acres (61 percent) <br />of the area Irrigated are soils of high suitabi lity (Type A), 570,000 <br />acres (17 percent) are sol Is of moderate suitability (Type B), 660,000 <br />acres (20 percent) are sol Is with limited sultabi lity (Type C), and <br />60,000 acres (2 percent) are soi Is requiring major improvements such <br />as drainage or flood control (Type D). <br /> <br />About 1,108,000 acres of land are suppl ied with water from surface <br />sources. The remaining 2,247,000 acres are supplied from ground water <br />sources. About 130,000 acres irrigated from surface water supplies are <br />also supplied with ground water, usually because the surface supplies <br />during the Irrigation season are insufficient. <br /> <br />Present Problems <br /> <br />Surface Water Systems <br /> <br />Irrigation systems supplying surface water to about 670,000 acres <br />annually have problems which lower Irrigation efficiency. The major <br />problems are Insufficient water supplies, high canal losses, and rising <br />water tables. These problems affect 57 community Irrigation systems as <br />shown in Table 18 by basin. Numerous private individual instal lations <br />are also affected but these were not inventoried and are not included <br />in Table 18. <br /> <br />Water ShortaQe. Thirty-four irrigation systems servicing about <br />215,000 acres do not have an adequate supply of water. Water shortages <br />of individual systems vary between 25 and 60 percent of the farm delivery <br />requirement for the crops being irrigated. The weighted average shortage <br />is about 35 percent. These systems depend mostly on direct flow diver- <br />sion rights although a few have access to some storage waters. The <br />present sItuatIon Is a bIg improvement over the conditions existing <br />before 1940. Enactment of the 1933 Public Power and Irrigation District <br />Act provided the authority for construction of storage reservoirs in <br />the Platte and Loup River Basins. A major purpose of some reservoirs <br />was to supplement direct flow rights of existing systems. At about this <br />time a number of systems furnishing water to about 73,000 acres in the <br /> <br />36 <br />