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<br />~, - <br />000385 <br /> <br />Elkhorn River Basin. This Basin has the second highest amount of <br />suitable land remaining available for irrigation development. Nearly <br />750,000 acres are soi Is of the top irrigation suitabi Ilty class. Less <br />than 5 percent of the suitable land, mostly in the valleys, is presently <br />irrigated. This is partly due to the favorable climatic conditions <br />for drytand cropping. Relatively large blocks of highly suitable land <br />are located in the Elkhorn, Logan, and Maple Creek Valleys. ~ large <br />block of hayland in Holt County has a high water table. Installation <br />of drainage measures would make this area suitable for irrigation devel- <br />opment. <br /> <br />Lower Platte River Basin. Less than 10 percent of the land suitable <br />for irrigation is presently being irrigated. This amount is low because <br />of relatively favorable climatic conditions for dryland cropping. Most <br />of the presently irrigated land is In the Platte Yal ley and in eastern <br />Saunders County in the Todd Val ley area. About 500,000 acres of moderately <br />to highly suitable soils remain available for development. These are In <br />reasonably large blocks of land on bottoms and terraces in Platte, <br />Colfax, Dodge, and Saunders Counties. The amount of ground water avail- <br />able for irrigation Is extremely variable. <br /> <br />Republican River Basin. This Basin has a large amount of land <br />suitable for irrigation, over 2,500,000 acres. Of this, 319,000 acres <br />have been developed. Storage reservoirs on the Republican River and <br />major tributaries supply water for the val ley lands. Ground water irri- <br />gation development Is scattered throughout the Basin. The land remaining <br />available for development amounts to about 2,200,000 acres of which <br />approximately 1,340,000 acres have moderately to highly suitable soils. <br />Large blocks of highly suitable lands are avai table In Perkins, Chase, <br />Dundy, Hitchcock, Frontier, Phelps, Kearney, Frankl in, and Harlan <br />Counties. Smaller tracts in narrow strips of highly suitable lands <br />are located In the dissected plains. Water supplies, both surface and <br />ground, are limited. <br /> <br />Little Blue River Basin. This Basin has large areas of land suitable <br />for Irrigation development, about a fourth of which are presently Irrigated-- <br />almost entirely from ground water. There remains unirrlgated over 400,000 <br />acres of highly suitable lands. The supply of ground water is limited. <br /> <br />Biq Blue River Basin. The upper portion of' this 8asin has about <br />1,150,000 acres of land classified as highly suitable for irrigation <br />development. It Is estimated that about a half mi I lion acres of the <br />highly suitable soils have been developed for irr,lgation, mostly by <br />the Installation of wells. This leaves about 650,000 acres Interspersed <br />throughout the loess plains area of this Basin remaining available for <br />development. Additional lands along the eastern side of the Basin can <br />be Irrigated by developing surface water supplies. An outside source <br />of water to supplement the ground water supplies Is needed if existing <br />development is to be sustained and additional lands in the central and <br />western area are to be developed. <br /> <br />Nemaha River Basin. Only 11,000 acres of land In this Basin are <br />Irrigated. This is the lowest total of any basin. ~Ithough over a <br /> <br />46 <br />