Groundwater recharge proposal stirs Kearney Co. landowners

Tony Herrman
therrman@hastingstribune.com
MINDEN — Proposed groundwater recharge reservoir projects in southeastern Kearney received a less-than-receptive response at a public meeting Tuesday on the Kearney County Fairgrounds here.
John Thorburn, manager of the Holdrege-based Tri-Basin Natural Resources District, presented the recharge project, which includes three potential reservoir sites along Sand Creek, to several dozen landowners who would be directly affected. These reservoirs have the potential to take farm ground out of production.
“Oh, I thought it was great,” Thorburn said of the public discussion during an interview after the meeting. “I understood coming in here that I’d have a lot of concerned people, and that’s OK. We needed to understand what their concerns were. We needed to know what the level of support or opposition would be that we have, and hopefully we were able to educate some folks, too, about not only the benefits and potential drawbacks of reservoirs but the situation we find ourselves in with the groundwater supplies.”